


Holly Blue Agate is Desperate, Pass It On

by airandangels



Series: Pass It On [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Aftercare, Alien Sex, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bathroom Sex, Biting, Double Penetration, Exhibitionism, F/F, Face-Sitting, Flogging, Gangbang, Group Sex, Hair-pulling, Kissing, Lactation Kink, Lesbian Sex, Mommy Kink, Oral Sex, Orgy, Post-Coital Cuddling, Praise Kink, Pregnancy Kink, Rimming, Rough Sex, Sexual Roleplay, Shame kink, Shapeshifting, Spanking, Squirting, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Fisting, Vaginal Sex, Verbal Humiliation, Wet & Messy, consensual but not sensible, in the same person she's very muddled, simulated pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 03:36:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 144,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9581048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airandangels/pseuds/airandangels
Summary: Left to her own devices on a Zoo station she no longer controls and overrun by insubordinate and oversexed Quartzes, Holly Blue Agate reaches the end of her tether.Everything goes better than expected.Content warning/note: All sexual activity in this story takes place with the full consent of all participants, but in the early stages Holly has some unhealthy reasons for her choices (as well as some messed-up beliefs about others and herself).





	1. Chapter 1

Holly Blue Agate had too much pride to cringe in front of these horrible insubordinate Amethysts but she shrank inwardly as the traitors’ ship left.  It should never, ever have come to this, she shouldn't have been put in this invidious position, she should have had  _ help,  _ not that she'd wanted help because she'd been so proud to be entrusted with the whole thing by no less than Blue Diamond, but  _ someone  _ should have seen to it that she had some trustworthy support, not just these lumpen creatures who were gathered around her now grinning and leering.  

“Do your worst,” she said, trying to sound proud and defiant, and very disappointed in the way her voice cracked.  

“Our what?” said Amethyst 5-8XL.  

“Whatever it is you're going to do to me, your revenge, you pack of brutes.  I know I can't expect any better from the likes of you.”

5-8XL rolled her eyes.  “Ugh, you  _ would  _ think that.”

“We don't want to do  _ revenge  _ on you,” said 5-8XJ.  

“I wanted to point at her and laugh in her face,” said Carnelian, “can I do that?”

“Yeah, knock yourself out.”

Carnelian pointed a stubby finger at Holly’s face.  “Ha-ha!  Okay, that felt good, I’m done.  Anyone else?”

“No, who cares?”

There was a general chorus of assent that punishing their fallen Agate was not anyone present’s idea of fun.  Someone blew a raspberry to show what they thought of that.  And then they just wandered off and left her there.  They weren't even frightened enough of her to think she should be locked up to stop her trying to regain control.  And they were absolutely right, because everyone had heard that terrible Pearl; she couldn't send for help, couldn't give the slightest outward sign that she didn't have everything perfectly in hand, because it would be more than her job and probably her life was worth.  She was on borrowed time until Blue Diamond saw fit to visit again — so at a stroke her favourite daydream was reduced to her worst-case scenario.  

It was the most complete and abject humiliation possible.  

She sat in her office wrapped up in a big shawl and petulantly watched the security feeds waiting to see everything descend into bestial chaos. 

It didn't.  

They didn't do anything with the speed or precision or  _ demeanour _ she'd required of them but all functions to do with the care and maintenance of the humans were still faithfully performed.  (Absolutely none of the routines she'd devised to foster discipline and the proper attitude were followed, and her instructional posters were defaced with very rude words and anatomically improbable drawings.)  And they kept going  _ in _ there with them, talking to them and playing with them and trying to cheer them up, since the specimen Blue Diamond had brought had evidently been some fiendish sort of agent provocateur (shamelessly exploiting and betraying her great kindness) who had got them all agitated about the routines that had kept them and their progenitors healthy and safe, the way Pink Diamond had wanted and made provision for, for thousands of years and more generations of the little wrigglers than Holly cared to think about.  There was completely unauthorised Choosening going on among the adults all over the place which made a mockery of her careful genealogical selections (which had often been botched in the past anyway because some purple fool thought a different pair “would look cuter together,” but  _ let the record show _ she had tried to maintain  _ standards).  _

The Amethysts were actually supervising them, though.  They defused conflicts and pandered to hurt feelings and did all sorts of things that would be completely unnecessary with a proper use of the Little Voice system, but they seemed determined to make a rod for their own backs by gradually weaning them off it and talking to the humans themselves.  It was infuriating to admit, but the humans were just as healthy and almost as happy as before, allowing for the occasional attack of hysterical weeping or laughing.  

And then there was their own depravity.  

She'd long ago resigned herself to the fact that she couldn't stop the Amethysts’ constant  _ fiddling _ with each other without actually staying in their dormitory to supervise, which was not only beneath her dignity but maddening.  She'd compromised with herself by turning a blind eye to a low level of hanky-panky behind closed doors and compensated by coming down extra hard on any non-essential touching in any other space on the station.  Now they were hugging and kissing and vigorously copulating on any surface that would support their weight.  She couldn’t leave her office without hearing giggling, panting, grunting and joyful moaning and squealing from  _ somewhere,  _ and that wasn’t even to mention the slapping and squishing noises.  They were shapeshifting their bodies at a whim and carrying on in a way that just defied belief.  And they were getting ideas from observing the humans and eating and drinking and sleeping and  _ snoring _ out of sheer  _ hedonism.   _ One consolation was that nobody, even she, could open Pink Diamond’s room without a Diamond present and so they couldn’t get in there and unbubble all the Rose Quartzes.  She didn’t want to think what that would add to the mix but it would undoubtedly contribute to the squishing; from what she remembered Rose Quartzes were apt to be voluptuous bordering on corpulent.

She made a series of short, furtive runs to other parts of the station to try to gather together everything she might want in her office so she wouldn’t have to go out, mostly books and music from the small library, anything to distract herself from the feeds and contemplation of the future.  Most of the time she succeeded in avoiding any encounters but once when she was nearly back to safety she rounded a corner and almost bumped into two canoodling Amethysts, one of whom had just got the other’s shoulder straps down and was blowing raspberries between her pudgy breasts while she hooted with laughter.

Holly skidded to a halt and backed up, clutching her tray of music crystals to her chest.  They noticed the clatter of her heels and looked up, startled since that sound had always meant trouble before, then relaxed.  

“Oh,  _ you,” _ said the one with her tits out, and the other one giggled. 5-8X… she was getting foggy.  L, she thought, and the first one was 7XK.

“Stay away from me!” Holly barked.  “I’m warning you!”

“Calm  _ down,”  _ said the one with her clothes still on, 8XL.  “Nobody  _ cares _ any more.”

“How dare you speak to me that way!”

“Oh, shut up.”

7XK wasn’t even trying to cover herself.  She patted her partner’s shoulder.  “Chill, Ellie, she’s just pissy because she can’t get her jollies kicking us around any more.”  She turned to Holly and said, “Seriously, you should relax.  No one wants to do anything bad to you.  If you expect that it says more about you than about us, okay?  If you’d just act right maybe we could be friends.”

“Put your clothes on,” Holly said desperately.  “This is obscene.”

7XK looked her straight in the eye, put her hand to her own breast, lifted the nipple to her mouth and licked it.

She could hear them laughing at her as she ran back to her office.

She  _ knew _ she shouldn’t keep watching the feeds but it was growing into an obsession.  She hardly looked at the ones in the human habitats any more - they were insignificant (there wouldn’t be anything  _ good _ there).  She watched hunched over in her chair, absent-mindedly rocking against the seat, biting her lip.  Some of them  _ knew _ where the cameras were and put on  _ shows,  _ there was one whose daily masturbation seated on the windowsill of the observation port on the second level just kept getting more lascivious.  All of them, any of them, all the time, it didn’t seem to matter.  They were all over each other and knew no shame.  Were they just  _ mocking _ her or in some perverse way  _ inviting _ her?  It was dangerous to think that way.

She could pinpoint the point at which her resolve broke; she was watching 8XG’s masturbation show and riding a cushion and trying desperately to time it so that they would come together.  You could tell when 8XG came not just from the expression on her face and the way her body arched but from the deep purple flush that bloomed in her face and flowed down her neck and fanned over her shoulders and breasts.  She saw the flush and peaked and just as she was half-blind with pleasure and relief her knee slipped and she fell hard on the floor.  She lay there with carpet burn on her hands and bruises on her knees and tears in her eyes and knew that she just couldn’t go it alone any longer.

She made herself look as presentable as she could — she didn’t think she could bear it if they turned her away for looking  _ unattractive _ — and told herself nothing really mattered any more anyway and went to find them.  At this hour they would all be gathered in the large lounge with a skylight full of stars that Pink Diamond had intended for high-ranking guests, rolling around in varying states of undress and physical transformation.  She could hear them as she approached the closed door, all the heavy breathing and gasps and grunts and moans and hisses and curses and giggles and full-throated shouts.  That awful little Carnelian was one of the loudest.

Holly took a firm grip on herself and knocked at the door.  There was no answer and all the noise inside carried on as before, so after a minute of increasing agitation she knocked again, a little harder.  Her face felt unbearably hot and she was acutely conscious of everything between her legs, all the degrading effort she’d made to shapeshift what they would like.  She’d never had an anus in her life before today and she was far more aware of it than she wanted to be.  This time, after a few moments, the door slid back and a flushed face topped by tousled hair peeped out.  5-8XJ looked as if she couldn’t think what a knock at the door could mean.  At the sight of Holly she frankly gaped.

“Uh… yeah?”

Holly clenched her hands tight at her sides, found she couldn’t force her head up to meet XJ’s gaze, and blurted, “Please may I come in?”

“Uh… what for?”

“Please may I come in and  _ join  _ you?”

Someone in the lounge called out “What is it?”  Someone else added, “Ohmygosh, did XM and her friends come back?”

“Uh, no,” said XJ over her shoulder.  “Holly Blue Agate wants to come in… and fuck?” Her voice slid up a semitone in bafflement.

“Whaaat?”

“I  _ knew _ she’d cave!”

“Woooooooo slutty Holly!”

“Dude, shut up, she’s really embarrassed!” XJ yelled back.

“But that’s why it’s hot.”

XJ turned back to Holly, frowning.  “You sure about this?” she asked.  “‘Cuz I don’t fuck anyone I’m not sure is 100% into it.  That’s what  _ I _ call having standards.”

“I’m sure!”

XJ still looked unconvinced.  “C’mon in and we’ll see.”  She turned and walked back into the room, her broad hips swaying.  There were love-bites all over her bottom.  Holly took a deep breath and followed her in.  She didn’t know where to look, and she’d been  _ watching _ them all for weeks.  In here she could smell them too, sweating bodies and lush wet cunts and sharp fresh come, and feel the heat and the sheer  _ humidity _ of them.  If she looked this way she was staring at that Carnelian, sitting in someone’s lap with a phallus nearly as thick as her wrist inside her; if she looked that way her eyes hit 7XK astride 8XL’s face, and 8XL was peering out at her, two wide astonished eyes and a snub nose buried in a thatch of soft white pubic hair.  There were Gems sprawled about on the floor, on the velvety pink couches — that skinny little Jasper was bent double draped over the arm of a couch, panting as her partner continued pumping into her from behind, even while they were both staring at Holly as if she were — a creature in a zoo.  

“You know what?” said 8XG, lifting her face from between another Amethyst’s chubby thighs and thoughtfully wiping her chin.  “I think she should just watch for a while.  Before we  _ let _ her join in.”

“Yeah, tie her hands so she can’t jack off,” someone said.

“I’m not  _ tying _ her hands,” XJ said.  “You don’t even know if she likes that.  Okay Holls, here’s what we’re going to do.”

_ Holls? _

XJ pulled out a fat pink cushion on the floor and slapped it with her palm.  “Sit.  No, you know what, kneel.  Good.  Knees apart, feet out a little.  Hold your heels.”  Suddenly, she grinned.  “You look pretty cute like that.  Think you can hold it for a while?”

“Yes.”  At least she was in, at least they hadn’t told her to get out or laughed at her.

“It’s warm in here.”  XJ traced one finger down the V of Holly’s capelet, one of the last markers of superior rank left to her.  It was where she wore her blue diamond insignia.  “Want me to take this?”

Holly swallowed hard.  “Yes.”

“Good Holly.  Just wait right there.”  She unwrapped the capelet from Holly’s shoulders, slung it unfastened around her own and strolled off, leaving her in the midst of all this undulating orgiastic flesh.  They all just carried on.

_ I’m allowed to look.  In fact, I’m supposed to look.  I just — I’ll just watch quietly and maintain my composure.  I’ll choose a place to look and just focus there.   _ Her eyes drifted from one couple or cluster to another, her face growing hotter and the warmth blooming out through her chest.  There was a slow, deep pulse in her cunt and she felt almost bloated with desire.  Despite all that she thought she was doing pretty well until someone snorted and said, “Check out Holly.  She’s  _ drooling.” _

She hadn’t even been aware of her mouth gradually sagging open and the wet gathering and beading on her lower lip, beginning to drip down.  She sucked it in sharply.  They were all laughing, ribald cackles and deep dirty guffaws.

“Totally tranced out.”

“Horny Holly.”

“Dude, look at her pants, she’s soaked through.”

“You perv, Holly.”

“Jay, are you taking care of this or is she anyone’s?”

“I guess I took responsibility when I let her in.”  XJ was back, wiping sweat from under her breasts with the crumpled capelet.  Her pubic hair was wet down the middle now, one thick violet lip protruding from the curls.  “Okay, Holls.”  She knelt on one knee in front of her, appraising her.  “You’ve been patient, huh?  I’m impressed.   _ Not _ a strong point for me.”  She ran her fingertips along the edge of Holly’s jaw and plucked at her lower lip with her thumb.  “I think you really want some.”

“Yes.  Please.”  It was hardly out of her mouth when XJ’s tongue was in it with a soft, sloppy, urgent kiss, and she was getting pushed backward, and her legs were cramped from sitting bent so long and she lost her balance and her grip on her heels and fell on her back with a thump.  They were all laughing again.  XJ was crawling forward over her body, grinning down at her, her thick soft hair tumbling forward over her shoulders to drape around them.

“Fuuuuck, look how cute you are when you stop acting mean.”  XJ bent and kissed her again, sucking on her lower lip.  She bit it softly and pulled back, stretching it; then the bite and the pull were both harder and Holly had to scrabble to get her hands under her and push herself up.  XJ pulled her up to sit upright again, panting, tears in the corners of her eyes.  She took hold of her heels again, since she hadn’t been told she could let go; better to be careful.

“Want me to take this?” XJ plucked at the black silk of her top, tucked tightly into her snug blue pants.

“Yes.”

“Hold still.”  She untucked it and rolled it up over Holly’s breasts.  She felt someone behind her pull the fabric tight and tie it in a knot between her shoulderblades.  There was a chorus of whistles and cheers, for her breasts, apparently.  

“Soft, heavy, Holly tits,” XJ said, cupping them in her hands to feel their weight.  “You’re gonna be so popular.  And look at  _ this _ mess.  Spread your legs and show the ladies.”  Holly bit her lip —  _ ouch —  _  and parted her thighs, and there was a further round of cheers for the wet streak down the middle of her crotch.  “You want me to play with it?”

“Oh, please…”  She rocked her head back and caught her breath as thick, strong fingers pressed on her mound and slid down.  Her lips slipped apart smoothly under the blue velvet and XJ stroked up and down between them, watching her face with satisfaction.

“Does that feel good, Holly?”

“It’s so good…”  On the upstroke XJ’s fingers nudged up under her clitoris and it was the sweetest possible tease.

“We’ve got a problem, though.”

“What?  No.”

“I want to get you out of those pants but I definitely want you in your kinky boots.”

“I - I’ll put them back on, I —”

“No, no, I’ve got this.  Skinny, give me that little thing.”  Skinny was nearby watching them with interest, and she drew a short sharp blade from the cabochon in her belly and slapped the handle into XJ’s waiting palm.  “Just hold perfectly still, Holly-dolly.”  She lifted a pinch of fabric and cut through, slitting right around the thick top of Holly’s left thigh, then the right, lifting her legs with a firm hand under the knee so she could get the undersides.  She felt the blade cold against her skin sometimes and it made her catch her breath, but it never cut her.  XJ smiled and finished by slitting from the thigh up over the hip on each side so she could just bunch the fabric together and pull it out from under Holly’s bottom.  The pants coming off got not only whistles but applause.

Holly didn’t know whether to feel honestly flattered and complimented or not; they could just as easily or more easily be making fun of her.  She couldn’t rid herself of the fear that the real plan was to get her all excited and then kick her out.  XJ was playing with her breasts again, bouncing them in her palms, twirling her thumbs around the large, puffy nipples.

“Look at your pretty titties!  I just love them.  Get used to no one leaving  _ these _ alone.”

“But —”

“But what?”

“But aren’t you going to touch —”  Holly nodded downward.

The audience chimed in again.  “She’s only got two hands!”

_ “Greedy _ Holly.”

“Thinkin’ with her pussy.”

“In her defence I am thinking a  _ lot _ of things with my pussy right now.”

“We know, it’s a real think tank in there.”

“You say think tank, I say spunk tank.”

Strong arms wrapped around Holly from behind, slipping under her arms, and warm hands closed over XJ’s on her breasts.  XL put her chin on Holly’s shoulder and grinned at her.  “Can I play too?”

“Yes please.”   _ Just be humble, just be polite, I thought this one hated me, well, maybe I’ll win her over if I’m very good. _  XL was squeezing her breasts, kneading them firmly, and XJ slid her hands down over her body, pausing to rub her soft belly appreciatively before combing her fingers into her pubic hair.

“So everyone who bet it was shaved into a diamond was wrong,” XJ announced.  “She has a big old curly bush like most of us.”

“Damn, I still thought it might have two buns in it,” Carnelian said to general laughter.

“There’s probably  _ enough _ of it,” XJ said, giggling as she slid her hand lower.  

“I’ll shave it if you want me to.  Or you could shave it, whatever you prefer,” Holly offered.

“No, it’s fine just like this.  Holy shit, you’re wet!  Look at this.”  She drew her fingers out from between Holly’s lips and parted them, stretching a glistening slick strand between them.

_ “Sloppy _ Holly.”

“I want a taste!”

“You’ve hardly even touched her yet.”

“Does this feel good, Holly?” XJ purred, slipping two fingers inside her.

“Mmm!”

“You been really needing this?”

_ “Yes!” _

“Deeper?”

“Yes…”

“Faster?”

“Please!”  Holly closed her eyes, panting; the pleasure was building inside her with the pressure, XJ’s thick fingers pumping in and out briskly, her wet lips slapping softly around them.  They weren’t the only source of that sound; it sounded as if half her audience were masturbating but her own noise was shamefully loud in her ears.

“Can you come from this?  Or do you want me to rub your clit?”

“Rub — please —”  XJ was kissing her again, she was sandwiched between her body and XL’s, they were warm and soft and sweating, and XJ was twirling her fingertip around her clitoris, teasing it furiously.  “Please rub hard,” she managed to say, slurred by XJ’s tongue against hers, “rub right on it.”  Then she got lost in being kissed and the feverish climb to an orgasm.  She was still terrified they wouldn’t  _ let _ her come, that  _ that _ would be the revenge, but then she was there and quivering with joy as the tension burst.

There were cheers and whistles and applause and someone had the nerve to say  _ she _ was noisy. 

“Oh, like it wasn’t obvious she’d be a screamer,” XL said indulgently.  “If you’re as uptight as Holly when you let go you let it  _ all _ go.”  She licked Holly’s cheek.  “Can I fuck you, sloppy Holly?”

“Yes.”

“Good.  Turn round.  C’mon, you can let go of your heels now, you don’t have to tie yourself in a knot.”

“Can I?” she asked XJ, who was still idly playing with her pussy lips.

“You better, I don’t want to be responsible for any sprains.”  XJ sat back on her heels and sucked her fingers clean.

Her legs were more cramped than ever and she leaned heavily on XL to get herself turned around, finishing up kneeling facing her, astride XL’s legs with her hands on her shoulders.  She was still having difficulty looking any of them in the face for more than a few moments and her gaze dropped to XL’s breasts, plump and a little pendulous, her nipples tilted downward.  

“You like those?  Look down.  You like  _ that?” _  She’d shapeshifted herself a chubby, curvy penis, stiffly erect.  “Want it in your pussy?”

“Yes please.”

“Have you  _ had _ a dick in your pussy before?”

“No… Objects, yes, that object in particular, no.”

“Okay, it could feel weird at first, so keep breathing.  If it hurts, tell me, I only want to keep going if you’re okay.  Got it?”

“Yes.”  She thought she could hide it if it hurt just a little; they weren’t going to want her if she was difficult.  

“Attagirl, gimme your hand.”  XL brought Holly’s hand in to squeeze the shaft and gave a little grunt of pleasure.  “Get up close and rub it between your lips.”  She leaned back on her elbows, gazing up at Holly with a lazy smile.

_ I don’t know what I’m doing at all, you can’t see it from this angle in the feeds.   _ She edged forward on her knees and guided the head of XL’s cock between her legs.  XL gave a soft hiss and her hips moved upward a moment, nudging against Holly’s pussy.  She rubbed lightly against it, her breathing shallow, a little whine of pleasure rising in her throat.

“She likes that.”

“Ellie’s gonna get drenched.”

“For real, look at the splot she left on the cushion.”

“Don’t listen to them, look at me,” XL said.  “Feel good?”

“Mmm.”

“Keep it going.  You know what I like?  Press it down on my belly and rub up and down — you’ve got it now.”  XL’s face was getting flushed as Holly rode her but she was still grinning in delight.  “Fuck, Holly, why are you so horny?  You just came and you’re humping on me like you can’t get enough.  No, don’t let up,  _ do _ it, you want it, don’t you?  Own it, you’re a horny bitch.”

“She’s drooling again.”

“Look how spaced out she is!”

“C’mon, Holly, stick it in, it feels amazing.”

“I think she’s on auto-hump, someone clap next to her ear.”

“Noooo, don’t be mean, this is awesome.”

“Stick it in, Holly!”

XL took hold of her hips and pushed back against her thrust, bringing her to a standstill.  “Holly, I really want to be inside you so bad.  Can we just — yeah, there we go, oh that’s so good!”  A roar of approval went up around them as Holly hitched her hips up, fumbled the head of XL’s cock into place and sank down on it.  She forgot the advice about breathing for a moment, but didn’t need the advice about pain, there wasn’t any, only glorious hot pressure just where she wanted it.  She couldn’t decide if she wanted to pump up and down on it or to swivel around and got herself badly off balance trying to do both.

“That’s good, isn’t it, Holls?”  XJ was stroking her back, steadying her.  “Let Ellie fuck you a little, see how you like it.”  XL’s quick, short strokes pushed little wavering cries out of her and she had to lean forward, planting her hands on the floor.

“Jay, get your ass out the way, I want to see it going in!”

“All right, all right, there it is.”

“Oh, fuck yes.  Get it, Holly.”

“Fuck her, Ellie!”

“Is it gross to point out she has a really cute asshole?”

“She does, doesn’t she!  Kind of puffy.”

XL was avidly kissing Holly’s breasts as they swung in front of her face, moaning and grunting in time with her thrusts, clutching at her thighs and sinking her fingers into their soft pudge.  All she could manage to do at this stage was to hold herself up on her hands and knees, and her knees were sliding farther apart.  She felt XJ’s hands, at least,  _ someone’s _ hands where she thought XJ still was, clutching and kneading her buttocks, and then a finger sliding up and down over her tender new anus, making it flinch and twitch.  

“Holls, can I fuck you here too?  I promise it feels good.”  XJ’s voice, but it wouldn’t have mattered when she felt like this.

“Yes.”

“Oh, fuck yes!”  XJ’s voice shook with eagerness, and then with laughter.  “Can I just say you’ve done a really nice job with this baby?  Self-lubricating and everything.  Speaking as an Amethyst I  _ really _ appreciate a good hole.”  Holly yelped as XJ pushed her finger in.  “Did that hurt?”

“No.”  It was throbbing around the intrusion but not painfully; it was just so  _ sensitive _ and she wasn’t sure she’d made it right.

“You’ve gotta tell me if it hurts, ‘cuz I can ask but I don’t  _ know.   _ Help me do right by you, you know?”

“Not… not  _ hurt,  _ it surprised me.”

“That’s okay.  You starting to like it?”  She was sliding it gently in and out, and Holly was whimpering, her hips twitching, her eyes watering.

“She’s tightened up on me like a finger trap,” XL said, giggling.  “Not sure I’m ever getting out.”

“Can I come in, Holly?”

“Yes — yes —”  She sagged down on XL’s chest, panting as XJ pushed her cock inside her, slow and deep, until she could feel them pressed together through the tender inner wall.

“Hello there,” XL said, still giggling.  “You come here often?”

“No, but I’m  _ gonna.” _  XJ grunted softly, gripping Holly’s bottom, and began to thrust, rocking her hips steadily.  “Oh-h-h-h-h!  Holly ass is good, Holly ass is very,  _ very _ good.  Holly ass is hot and soft and tight and maybe gonna melt my dick.”

“Well,  _ I _ like Holly pussy, yes I do, all silky wet and squishy.”  XL’s hips stuttered a moment before she found her stroke in counterpoint to XJ’s.  “C’mon Holls, lift up a bit, I want to suck your tits again.  Thassit.  Mmm.”

It was overwhelming, so  _ good _ and so  _ wrong _ and so  _ hard _ and everything she was aware of was where they were touching her and moving and rubbing inside her, as if all the energy of her body were focused there.  In the distance there was rhythmic clapping and a chant of “Hol-ly, Hol-ly, Hol-ly!” — cheering her or mocking her, it didn’t really matter, the same rhythm was pumping deep in her cunt and her ass and XL was sucking her breasts and XJ was rubbing her back and both of them were praising her in moans and grunts and now XL was coming, her face ecstatic.  She was going limp, sprawled under Holly, her cock slipping free with a runnel of come, and XJ was thrusting faster, finding more room to move, until she clutched Holly’s buttocks bruisingly tight at her climax and folded double over her back, panting and laughing giddily.  She caught her breath, straightened up and slapped Holly’s ass gleefully.  “Woo!”  She slumped again on top of them both, heavy and slick with sweat.  Holly felt sealed between their bodies, rocked by their fast breathing and her own.

“You okay, Holly-puss?” XL asked.  “We like it if you talk to us.  You don’t say much but yes and no.  Which… honestly is not like you.”

“Depends whether you count all the moaning and squealing as saying something,” XJ said, and kissed the gemstone in the back of her head.  

“Perfly all right,” Holly mumbled.  She wasn’t even aware in the moment if she moaned or squealed or for that matter screamed.  To her way of thinking it was most likely that remaining articulate throughout a comprehensive sexual pummelling was just an Amethyst trait and not an Agate one.   _ Nothing _ could stop Amethysts chattering, even an Agate, and she’d given up.  She felt XJ pulling out and heard a small sound perhaps best rendered as “splop.”  There was some sniggering.

“You sore anywhere?” XJ asked.  “I mean, your buttcheeks are going to be sore, you got some nice big fingerprints coming up there, but is anywhere I can’t see sore?”

“Knees.”  She’d had all her weight on the inside of the joint somehow and they were quite painful.

“Okay everyone,” XJ said, sitting back on her heels, “ground rule, Holly gets to stay off her knees till they feel better.  Figure out another position.”

“Here we go,” XL said, wrapping her arms around her and rolling her onto her back; someone pushed a pillow into place under Holly’s head as she settled.  It kept confusing her that they were so solicitous.  She’d expected to be used and enjoyed and secure a place for herself that way, and although she’d felt some fear hadn’t  _ seriously _ expected to be used harshly; she  _ hadn’t  _ expected all this stuff about whether she was comfortable enough.  They weren’t exactly careful  _ with _ her but they appeared to care  _ about _ her.

XL was sitting up, stretching her arms over her head with a look of total contentment.  There was a flicker of light between her legs as she reshaped her genitals.  “I  _ definitely _ recommend fucking Holly,” she said.  “Who’s next?”

“Ooh, me!  I wanna sit on her face.” Carnelian wriggled out of the crowd at knee height and waved her arm.

“You’d be up for that, wouldn’t you Holls?”

“Yes.”  She wasn’t at  _ all _ sure about that, it was  _ Carnelian,  _ not only a leftover from Earth but a visibly defective one, but she couldn’t be choosy now.  And at least, being so small, she was also quite light and wouldn’t be too smothering.

“Hope you like sloppy seconds,” Carnelian said cheerfully, swinging her leg over Holly’s head to kneel astride it and give her a good look, “‘cuz I’ve had three or four of my friends come inside me this sesh alone.”  It looked like it; her thick, fluffy pubic hair was matted and damp, plastered back from the puffy labia, and as Carnelian slid two fingers down to part them a long drip of cloudy mixed juices escaped and fell on Holly’s lips.  She breathed in sharply; Carnelian was grinning down at her and yes, she  _ was _ mocking her, was expecting her to react with disgust.   _ I can’t react to provocation, I can’t risk it, as hard as it is I have to keep as meek as if she were a Diamond.  And if she  _ were _ a Diamond what could make me happier?   _ She licked her lips, swallowed her reaction and managed to say, “Thank you.”

“She likes it!” Carnelian said gleefully, confusing her.  She  _ was _ mocking her, so how could she be  _ pleased _ that Holly appeared to have liked what she’d done?  Was this like - was  _ this _ like when they did idiotic things like collapsing in hysterical laughter mid-fuck because someone had farted or tickling each other until they wet themselves (they were entirely too keen on the bodily functions that followed eating and drinking)?  Did Carnelian just think gooping on her was  _ funny, _ without malice?  What was the  _ matter _ with her?  But it was  _ nicer _ to feel that it hadn’t been a sort of attack.

“Take a big lick,” Carnelian said, settling her weight on Holly’s mouth and chin.  Being small didn’t remotely mean that she wasn’t smothering; her chubby thighs either side of Holly’s face and her little belly resting on her nose took care of that.  She gave a long shaky moan as Holly kissed her lips, trying to work out the best way to use her tongue.  “That’s good, that’s nice, suck the lips,  _ now _ you got it… ooh, fuck, Holly, who’ve you been practising on?  You’re  _ good.” _

“Wasn’t me,” someone said.

“Or me.”

“We’ve been here five thousand fuckin’ years and she never wanted a bar of us before so I’m going with she’s a pussy-eating savant.”

“That or Carnie’s really not picky.”

“Shut up,” said Carnelian, “I know what feels good.  Now wasn’t that boring, being all high and mighty?”  She combed her fingers into Holly’s fringe, ruffling her hair.  “Don’t you feel better now?  Miss High and Mighty with a creamy pussy and ass and the littlest Gem in your garrison riding your face?”

“Mmph.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Carnelian said, chuckling and rocking her hips.  “You want someone else to fuck you while you’re eating me out?”

“Mm-hmmph.”  She could move her head well enough to nod, and she could feel hands rubbing her thighs.

“You’re kind of plushy,” someone said.

“Holly’s a luxury model,” someone else replied.  “A better class of chub than us.”

“Seriously, her skin’s so nice.  I can touch your pussy, right, Holly?”

The noises she could make under Carnelian’s juicy smothering must not be clear enough to them; it felt absurd but she tried giving a thumb-up gesture.  She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do with her hands anyway; should she keep them still to show she was passive and obedient or would that just look lazy?

“Whee!” said the unseen Amethyst and moved from massaging her inner thighs to parting her labia with her thumbs.  “Ells, you painted the walls in here.”

“I’m called XL for more than one reason.   _ Everything _ I do is extra-large.”  The boast was met with laughter and jovial slapping and thumping noises; Holly was acutely conscious of the hot wet that was leaking out of her cunt as — going by voice, she thought it  _ might _ be 5-8XT, that would do for now — XT massaged its outer folds.  Without being able to see it she couldn’t tell how much was what XL had left inside her and how much was just the result of being so desperately, pathetically excited to be used this way.  She had (obviously!) known she wanted to be used by Blue Diamond and had expected to need fantasies about her to get her through the worse indignities of being used by the Amethysts, but the indignities themselves seemed to be exciting her.  She was slurping at a sweaty, sticky crimson pussy that tasted like multiple Gems’ spunk and being suffocated and half blinded by Carnelian’s fat little tummy and thighs and  _ enjoying _ it in a feverish, unwholesome way.  She forgot about showing obedience and lifted her hands to squeeze Carnelian’s bottom, and moaned into her cunt as she felt XT’s fingers sliding inside her own.

“Ooooh, she’s really squidgy.”

“Of course she is!”

“No, dude,  _ feel.” _  XT’s fingers slipped out and another pair pushed in, stretching and swirling around.

“Fuck, that  _ is _ squidgy!  See, this is why I get all deep-thoughty sometimes.  You say a Gem’s whole purpose is to scare other Gems into line, but you make her with a body this nice?  What’s that about?”  She pumped her fingers, angling up, and Holly quivered.

“Only you, Kay.”  

“What?”

“Gettin’ all existential fingerbanging Holly.”

“Yeah, so why would you make a dumb grunt who gets existential, huh?  Huh?”

“Well if you’re gonna be like that you can just give back the pussy.”

A short, crisp raspberry.  “Fine, I wanted to play with her titties anyway.”

The only problem Holly was having was being unable to  _ concentrate,  _ divided between Carnelian riding her face and grunting joyfully, whoever Kay was pressing her breasts together to suck both nipples at once, and XT lifting up her hips and penetrating her deeply.  She was the centre of a cluster of eager, panting bodies taking pleasure in her and that, as much as the thrusting, drove her to an orgasm.  Carnelian was coming with a series of fierce little cries, almost crushing her head between her thighs until she relaxed and fell backward and collided with Kay.  There was some good-natured shoving between the two that jostled Holly, but she was unresisting, catching her breath in deep gasps.

“Hey, how’s our Holly?”  Hands stroked her damp hair back from her forehead and XJ smiled down at her.

“Goopy,” said someone else, and wiped her face with a cloth.

“Talk to me.”  XJ patted her cheek.  “I mean I realise you’re getting fucked as we speak.  You need Tee to put it on pause?”

“No, I — oh, I —”  The thrusting made her voice shake as much as her body.

“Feeling good?”

_ “Yes.” _  Her back arched involuntarily as a sweet, hot pulse rolled through her.   _ “Oh _ stars help me but I  _ love _ this!”

“Yeah?”

_ “Yes!” _

“Now  _ that’s _ what we wanna hear!” XJ said, beaming.  “Tell us what you want!  It’s way more fun that way.”

“I wa — ah — I obviously can’t ask you to kiss me in this state.”

“Like I give a fuck?”  XJ kissed her deeply, passing her hand down over her body to press on her lower belly and feel the surge of XT’s thrusting.  “Tee giving it to you good?”

“Yes, I — faster?  Please?  T-Tee?”

“Hold up, I — here…”  XT hoisted Holly’s hips higher up, leaned forward on her arms and began to pump frantically.  “Fuck, Holly, I’m not going to last long like this but is it good?”

Holly could only answer in an urgent high whine, wrapping her legs tight around XT’s waist.  She felt a sudden startling pulse of fondness for the earnest, urgent look on XT’s sweating face, heavy brows crumpled together and plump lower lip trapped by her teeth.  She was working so  _ hard _ to please her and so  _ greedily _ for her own pleasure.  Both came to a peak together and this time she was just barely conscious of how she cried out, hoarse and ragged.  The orgasm seemed to surge straight up her cunt and into her core before rolling back down, rocking back and forth with her hips until it grew still and the sweetness dissipated through her body.  She lay still, breathing hard, XT face down on her breasts and moaning, feeling warm come leak between them and little flickering twitches in the muscles of her groin and thighs.  After a few moments completely unable to speak, she managed to lick her lips and clear her throat, and to say “Thank you.”  XT patted her hip in acknowledgement.

“8XG wants to eat your pussy,” XJ said, and kissed her neck.  “I’m sort of taking bookings.  Tell me when you’re tired, though.”

“Of course I’m not tired, and everyone should get a turn.”

That got a chorus of cheers and hoots, and a fresh chant of “Hol-ly!  Hol-ly!”

“Uh, Holls, I don’t know if you know what you’re signing up for.  We’re rowdy.”

“No one is more aware that you are  _ rowdy _ than I.”

“Huh, true.  Guess you just stopped fighting it!”

Someone pointed out that Holly was really too fancy for them to keep fucking her on the floor, so two sturdy Amethysts helped her up with an arm each, laughing cheerfully at the way her legs wobbled and her pussy leaked down her thigh.  They guided her to one of the couches, where 9-2QB, one of the stockier Jaspers, ducked in where she had been about to sit and sat there grinning hopefully and rubbing her erection.

“Boo, cheating,” said one of her helpers.  “Geddup, Bee.”

“I’m not cheating, I’m just  _ offering.   _ C’mon, Holly, this is a really comfy seat.  It’s like a massage chair, it just, you know, massages up your butt.”

“You’re very welcome, just hold still while I — um — position myself.”  It was a point of pride, she’d decided, that she would at the very least do more than Carnelian had; four minimum, and this would bring them equal, unless Carnelian wanted to be pedantic about keeping score vaginally or anally.  

“Really?  Awesome!  Take it slow, I’m pretty big.”  Holly felt QB’s hands, very warm and surprisingly light on her hips, just steadying her as she reached back between her legs to try to guide her cock into place.  She had some trouble through sheer unfamiliarity with the layout; when Holly tried to press down QB’s cock skidded up between her buttocks and she snorted with laughter, making Holly’s face burn with shame and annoyance.  “It’s okay, it’s okay, try again.  Hey, it’s good that it’s slippery, right?  Aw, now you’re getting it.  Damn, Holly, that feels so nice… wish I could see your face.”

“She’s biting her lip, ‘sfucking adorable,” reported XG, who was watching with interest, her fingers gently rocking between her labia.

Holly finally settled her weight in QB’s lap, her breathing shallow as she struggled to get used to the huge intrusion inside her.  XJ had felt large, but she hadn’t  _ seen _ what she put inside her and she was realising now that it must have been quite small, a considerate beginner-size.  QB was… “Quite Big,” she mumbled without meaning to.

“What’s that?” QB asked.

“N-nothing, I — uh…”  She shifted uneasily, wondering if there was any way to contain this that would be comfortable.  Sitting down  _ on _ it made her feel impaled.

“It’s okay.  You don’t have to put all your weight on it, let me help you.”  QB slipped her arms under Holly’s thighs and lifted them, guiding her to lean back against her.  It both relieved the pressure where it had been too much and put her on display.  She had been sitting bent forward before; now her feet were lifted off the floor and her thighs spread apart for the maximum exposure.  QB kissed her shoulder and rolled her hips slowly up and back, and Holly caught her breath in a gasp.  They were cheering her on again, there were bright-eyed faces gathered all around the couch, big strong grinning Gems enthusiastically groping themselves and each other.  The rolling, pushing sensation inside her made it almost impossible to concentrate on anything else so her impressions were hazy, but she was starting to very much enjoy their eyes on her.  

QB was breathing hard against the back of her neck, thrusting steadily.  “You’re fuckin’ gorgeous, Holly.  Still wish I could see your face.”

“Oh!” someone said.  “There’s that mirror!”  There was a flurry of activity and some clattering and then an eager clamour of voices.  “Look, Bee!”  “Check it, Holly!”

Holly’s eyes had drifted closed, but she blinked them open, lifting her head dizzily.  Two of them were holding up a large mirror, reflecting her and QB.  Her first reaction was disgust; she was sweating heavily and her mouth was hanging open and one of her buns was unravelling onto her shoulder.  She looked awful, messy and ugly and  _ slack,  _ as if she couldn’t even control her own face _. _  It was easier by far to look between her legs, at how astonishingly dliated her anus was, at the obscene way QB’s shaft slid back and forth in it, at how completely perverse it seemed to have all this happening  _ there _ and her pussy bobbing just above it, rocked by the same motion of QB’s hips but otherwise unoccupied.  Then her view of that was blocked because XG was kneeling down in front of her, pressing a kiss onto her ruffled mound.

“Can I?” she asked, big eyes upturned to Holly’s face.  

_ It’s your fault I’m here at all, you provoked me to breaking point.   _ “Yes.”  She couldn’t see anything between her legs in the mirror now but a cloud of pale lavender hair; above that were her belly and breasts, not  _ bad,  _ but then just above that the embarrassment of her face, and so she closed her eyes and hoped shame passed for passion.  XG’s hands were rubbing her thighs and her tongue was fluttering against her swollen lips, then firmly stroking, and she mewled with pleasure, sinking her hands into the fluffy curls.  

“Careful there,” said XJ, startling her; she hadn’t realised she was sitting right beside them on the couch.  “No pull-y.  Cool if you just want to touch her hair, don’t stop her moving her head.”

_ Are you  _ supervising _ me?  _ Holly thought indignantly, before being distracted by XG nuzzling at her clitoris.  She shivered in delight, her toes curling inside her boots.  “Just like that, just like that, that’s exactly right,” she babbled.

“Isn’t it wild hearing  _ Holly _ praising someone?”

“Sshh, you’ll put her off!”

“I wanna make her praise  _ me.” _

“Like  _ really _ loud.”

“Oh my stars that’s good dick!”  Someone was imitating her voice.

“I don’t sound like that!” Holly protested, her voice shaking as QB thrust faster.  “D-do I?”

“No, Holly-dolly, you sound great.  Skinny’s impressions suck.  Hey, you like kissing, right?”  XJ leaned in from the side, her lips warm and her tongue quick and eager, tracing Holly’s lips before slipping between them.  Holly sucked at her tongue, moaning, as XG worked her clitoris and QB pumped furiously into her ass, her hips jerking and quivering as she came.  XG was slipping fingers into her pussy, stroking and seeking and finding a spot to rub that made Holly whimper frantically into XJ’s soft mouth.  Being fucked anally was intensely exciting but  _ so _ intense it was almost unbearable; what XG was doing was pure thrilling sweetness that made her tremble all over and arch against her hand and her lips and her tongue until the pleasure overwhelmed her in deep, hard pulses.  As they softened and faded she went limp, melted against QB’s stocky body, breathing deeply as XJ stroked her hair back from her face and XG eased her fingers out and, from the sound of it, sucked them with gusto.  

“For anyone at the back who couldn’t see,” XG announced, “I am pleased to announce that if you find the right spot and work it hard Holly squirts like a fountain.”  Cheers went up.

“Did you know you could do that?” XJ asked her, giggling.

“Of course I did.”  She’d very rarely been able to make it happen by herself but there was no reason to tell  _ them _ that.

“You want some more?”

“Of course I do!”

“Pussy, butt, both?”

“Both.  Very definitely both.”  She was determined to conquer any difficulty she had with this anal business.

“Gotta make room for the next one then, Bee,” XJ said, patting QB on the shoulder.  “Pull out.”

“I can’t, I live up Holly’s ass now,” QB said dreamily.  “Everything here is wonderful.”  She released her hold on Holly’s thighs, though, and let XJ help her up.  Holly clung to XJ’s shoulders, her head spinning.

“Get a head rush standing up?” XJ asked, grinning.  She wrapped her arms firmly around Holly’s waist to support her.  “How’re those knees feeling?”

“Weak.”  They were not happy about having to support her weight.  “I want to sit down.”

“Okay, you want to keep going in that posish?”

“Good idea.”

“Does it matter who?”

“Not at all when the goal is all of you.”

“Cool.  You know I’m gonna be right here to keep an eye on you, right?  And you don’t have to keep going ‘cause you said you would if it turns out harder’n you thought or you get tired or you’re just not into it any more.  You can tap out any time and we’ll understand.”

“Why are you worrying about me all the time?” Holly asked, baffled.  “If I can’t cope with what I’ve said I’ll do it’s my own stupid fault.”

“I’m a nice person, dumbass.  And you’ve been a huge bitch but you’re  _ our _ huge bitch and we want to take care of you.”

“Oh.”  Holly was torn between being extremely insulted to be called a bitch (she didn’t mind being called huge) and rather touched to think that even so they valued her enough as  _ theirs _ to want to keep her in good condition.

“Yeah, that gave you something to think about, huh?”  XJ bumped her hip against Holly’s.  “Okay Holls, let’s get you fucked.  Exes is all ready for you.”  5-8XX was sitting on the couch, a little to one side of the wet spot from last time, offering her a beaming smile and a bulging dick.

“I need you to make that just a little slimmer,” Holly admitted.  “That looks thick enough to hurt.”

“Oh!  Sure, sure.  Like this?”

_ They like me praising them, so I should really try.  How does that  _ go?  “Much better,” she tried.  XX looked absurdly pleased with even that much.  XJ helped her to sit down, to guide the head in and sink down on the shaft.  It pushed a soft, deep grunt out of her, almost made her shudder, but it made her moan too.  She leaned back against XX’s plump breasts and relaxed a little as her legs were lifted and held securely.  This was beginning to be familiar, even with the differences that came with each new Gem.  They were  _ lining up _ to fuck her, lovely stiff cocks standing to attention (standing to attention better than _ they  _ ever had).  “Come here, 5-7XK, come here and… ahh…”

“Good?” XK asked.  

Holly bit her lip and nodded, loving the hot slick stretching push up inside her.  She remembered XK in the corridor, her breasts shaking as she laughed, and then that brazen lick, and raised her shaking hands to touch them.  XK leaned in and breathed by her ear, “Knew you wanted it,” and thrust in deep.

She was rocked between the two of them, moaning, feeling their warm breath gust against her neck and cheeks, the soft press of their bodies against hers, curvaceous bellies and thick thighs, and XK kissed her, a messy kiss that dissolved into tongues rubbing together as they panted for breath.  XX thrust briskly, almost roughly, grunting her satisfaction in a string of “Yes, yes, yes.” XK moved more deliberately, steadily, and wouldn’t let her look away, her gaze holding Holly’s as the pleasure mounted between them.  

“How’s that, Holly?”

“G-good.”  

“Only  _ good? _  Fuckin’ fantastic is what I’d call it.  You gonna come for me?”

_ “Yes.”  _  She could already feel it building.  

“Ooh, so quick.”

“Please…”

“Please what, Holly-puss?”

“Please fuck me deep and hard, I love it.”  It burst out of her.  

“Aw, you asked so  _ nice.” _  XK kissed her, her mouth lush and demanding and her hips pounding against Holly’s.  She suddenly felt oddly as if she was ignoring XX who was working just as hard, but what could you  _ do _ when someone was behind you and under you?  Talk to her.  She dragged herself away from the kiss with the deepest reluctance and gasped “XX!”

“Huh?”

“I love — oh fuck — you’re — aah!”  She’d left it too late to say anything coherent, she was coming ecstatically, trembling between them.  They were slowing down, trying to stop, thinking they needed to.  She reached around to clutch XK’s buttocks and pull her to her.  “Keep going, keep going!  Come for  _ me, _ come inside me, both of you!”  It seemed so urgently important that they should.  “This is for you.   _ Yes,  _ oh yes, oh, good!”  They were moving faster, each kissing and sucking at a side of her neck, grunting savagely, until first XK and then XX bucked and gasped and cried out in wild delight.  Holly lay pressed between their surging, panting bodies, feeling something she didn’t understand.   _ Oh. _  She was  _ proud _ of them.  Proud of herself too, really, proud of her capacity and endurance, and the thought that maybe she had even more power to give pleasure than to instil fear.

“Ohhh Holly,” XX groaned.  

“Exactly,” XK said with a throaty little laugh.  She lifted herself up and pulled back and crouched down to admire Holly’s flushed, soaked pussy, leaking a long, thick trickle of come.  “Who’s next?”

“Can I — here, Holly, will you lick this?”  5-9PQ was clambering over the back of the couch, her hand cupped under her bobbing erection.  

“Like…”   Holly tried to shift sideways, slipped off XX’s softening cock and landed on her hip.  “Oof.”

“And she sticks the dismount,” said XX.  She put her hand on Holly’s back to steady her.  “You okay?”

“Hold on, I… I can do this.”  She hitched herself up to sit more comfortably, leaning the side of her body against the couch back and resting her hands on PQ’s knees.  PQ hitched herself closer eagerly, a broad smile of anticipation on her face.  The tip of her cock was leaking a clear drizzle; Holly looked up at her as she kissed it.  With great difficulty, she admitted, “I don’t know exactly how to do this, I’ve only watched.”  She cleared her throat.  “Can you teach me?”

“Oh yes,  _ oh  _ yes.”  PQ gave a delighted, disbelieving giggle.  “It’s easy, you’re gonna get it right away, dick-sucking lips like yours.  Okay.  Hold it in your hand, good, like you want to hold it firm but not tight.”

“Here, Holly-dolly, let me get your hair off your face.”  XJ was behind her, finger-combing it back from where it clung damply to her forehead and cheeks.  “Pain in the ass if you get it in your mouth while you’re sucking.”

“Don’t get her confused about her ass and her mouth,” said a helpful spectator.

“Shut up, shut up,” said PQ.  “Okay, now Holly?  Try to keep your teeth off it.  Like don’t be paranoid about it, but you sorta cushion everything with your lips and your tongue.  Yeah?  First I want you to lick the head.”  She gave a delighted little grunt as Holly obeyed.  “Polish it with your tongue, yeah?   _ Yes. _  This’s why we like our Holly sloppy.  Your mouth’s so wet and soft.”

“Look at her!” someone squealed.  

“You lucky  _ dog,  _ Peek.  How’s it feel?”

“So good!  You like that, Holly?  Like the taste?”  She laid warm, sweating hands on Holly’s shoulders, stroking them.

“Mm.”  It wasn’t that different from pussy so far, which was reassuring.

“Good answer.  Just slip it in your mouth and suck it a little.  Get used to it.”

“Yeah, seriously,” someone said.  A lot of giggling at that.  It was warm and thick and solid and Holly’s mouth watered around it.

“Suck a little harder, Holly, that’s good.   _ Yes. _  Look at me.  Fuck, you’re hot.  Any time you’re ready, you suck me in a bit deeper.   _ Mmmmm.” _  Her moan of pleasure dissolved into a dirty chuckle.  “Oh Holly Blue, look at you.  Now what you wanna do, you wanna move your mouth, move your head, back and forth.”

“So good, Holly,” XJ murmured, gently kneading at her back, kissing the nape of ner neck.  “Can’t wait for you to do that to me.”

“Can I come in your mouth, Holls?  Yeah?”

“Mmhm.”  The way they were talking to her was almost a distraction; she just wanted to focus on the feeling in her mouth, on her late realisation that PQ’s cock tasted like pussy because it had been  _ in _ someone’s pussy very recently, on how gorgeously obscene it felt to put her mouth on the level of her pussy, on the way the soft thick skin surged and slid around the stiff core as she moved her mouth.  PQ was sottly hissing now, catching her breath between her teeth, her thighs and bottom tensing and relaxing.  

“I love it, I love it... you’re gonna make me blow, Holly, you’re sucking the spunk right outta me, here it comes, here it comes…”  She grunted deep in her throat as she spurted into Holly’s mouth, clutching at her shoulders. 

Holly sat back a bit as PQ’s hands loosened, trying to catch her breath and wiping at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.  Her chin was wet and she was afraid she’d been drooling again, but they were applauding for her and PQ looked dazed with bliss so she must have done well.  It hadn’t been comfortable or entirely pleasant but it had certainly been exciting.  Now she had mastered the general idea she could concentrate on getting better at it and pleasing them more, and she felt a rush of mixed satisfaction and anticipation.  “Can I have another, please?” she asked.

“Where’s  _ this _ Holly been all our lives?”

“I don’t know, but let’s make her want to stay.”

 

She didn’t realise she was on her last fuck until it was over and little Skinny was falling asleep on top of her, still inside her.

“Wake up, sweetie,” Holly murmured, nudging her.  She’d lapsed into calling all of them things like “sweetie” as she got increasingly, pleasantly hazy about who was doing what to her at any given time.  They seemed to like it; in fact they seemed to  _ love _ it if she was affectionate to them, redoubling their efforts to please her, which flew directly in the face of everything she’d ever learned about how to manage Quartzes.

“Wake up,” she said again, “make room for the next one.”

“Hmm?”  Skinny lifted her head and looked around.  “Everyone’s done.  You fucked us all out.”

Holly turned her head.  Oh.  The couches and the floor around the pile of cushions she lay on were littered with Gems curled up or sprawled out and sweetly sleeping or softly snoring.  There were a few who were still awake, talking quietly to each other, but no one was up and about.

“I didn’t realise,” she said, feebly.  “Then you can stay if you like.”

“I like,” Skinny said, resting her head between Holly’s breasts again.  “You’re so warm and soft.  Sleep tight.”

“I don’t know how to sleep,” Holly admitted.

“It’s easy.  You’re tired, right?”

“Yes.”   _ Very _ tired, and becoming aware of soreness in various places now the elation was wearing off.  Her love-bites had love-bites.

“Close your eyes and relax and it’ll happen.  Night-night, Holly.”

Holly didn’t believe her, but she closed her eyes to rest.

 

She woke in confusion, realising only gradually where she was and what she had been doing.  Skinny was gone and she was lying curled up on her cushions, still sore but not so tired now.  There was some point to sleep besides hedonism.  She could hear voices again, still quiet; it was strange to hear Quartzes talking  _ quietly _ but apparently they  _ could _ if they wanted to.  She heard her name, lay still and listened.  

“I would never have thought Holly could be like that.  I don’t get why she never did before.  We could  _ all _ have been having a good time.  She would’ve been happier too.”

“Cuz Holly’s a jerk.  Just because she’s acting nice doesn’t mean she’s changed her nature.”

“Well, you fucked the jerk.”

“Sometimes I have low standards.”

That hurt, it really, truly hurt.  Holly was dismayed and embarrassed at how much it hurt.  She shouldn’t personally care what any of them thought of her, getting them to like her was just a sensible strategy to ensure she had some kind of secure status, even if it was low.  But she’d started to mean the things she said when she praised them, she’d started to really enjoy not just the things they did to her body but… the people doing them, she supposed.  Who was saying this?  She couldn’t recognise her just from the voice.  Was it someone she’d kissed?  Someone who’d made her come?  How had she failed to win her over?

“I think that’s too harsh,” said someone else.  “I think she’s  _ trying _ to change.  Look how much the way she talked to us changed — when she got here she didn’t want to look anyone in the eye and I thought she was making herself do something she didn’t really like.  But shit, I think maybe she was just  _ shy.   _ She’d never fucked anyone with a dick before.  Maybe she’s really inexperienced.”

“I think it is safe to say Holly is now  _ very _ experienced.”  There was a little patter of laughter at that.

“Anyway, she warmed up to us, right?  She’d be incredible if she could fake that, the state she was in.  I think she realised she’d  _ been _ a jerk and she’s sorry now and wants to be our friend.  It’s nice!”

“I think she was sucking up to us because she’s scared,” said a new voice.  “Holly’s a weak person.  She was all big-ass bossy-boots when she thought she had Blue Diamond’s authority behind her.  Now she knows she’s cut off from that, she’s got nothing of her own to fall back on.  Not like us, because we’ve got being friends and loving each other.  We’re far stronger than she is on her own.  So she wants someone new to belong to and we’re it.”

“Well, that’s messed up.  What do we do about that?”

“Love her up and make her strong too.”

“Do you think that’ll work?”

“Fucked if I know, I’m just a dumb grunt who gets existential sometimes.  Even if Holly’s just stopped being a bitch because she’s scared, not because she’s really sorry, I’ll take it.  We’ll be a good influence on her.  And stuff.”

Holly felt a bit like crying, which was stupid and weak.  XK had a point really.  Even if they were only accepting her because they thought they were going to reform her in some backwards way, they  _ were _ accepting her and it meant she would be safe, for the time being, and at least safer than she would be alone when things inevitably went wrong.  She should take that and not  _ whine _ to herself about whether they really  _ liked _ her.

“She’s so cute.”  Was that a note of genuine fondness in that voice?  

“I don’t know if I’d say cute.  Definitely sexy.”

“I love how  _ puddingy _ she is.”

“Is that even a thing?”

“It can be.”

“It’s so  _ fucking _ hot seeing someone as buttoned-up as Holly all naked and sweaty and messy and not giving a shit because she’s so horny.”

“I liked how her hair came undone.”  Murmurs of agreement.

“I kind of liked the drooling.”  Affectionate laughter.

“I like how her tummy jiggles while you fuck her.”  Approving profanity.

_ You all have the most appalling taste, _ Holly thought.  She was torn between relief that they hadn’t actually been repelled by all the things she hoped they wouldn’t notice too much, and humiliation that they had not only noticed them, those things had clearly been obvious enough for multiple people to pay close attention to the same flaws.  And now she felt a little bit like crying because bad as their taste was, at least some of them  _ did _ seem to sincerely like her.   _ A huge bitch, but  _ their _ huge bitch. _

“I want to ask her if she’ll go around for a day just wearing her boots and her little cape.”

“That would be amazing!”

“I want to ask her if she’ll go around  _ forever _ just wearing her boots and her little cape.”

“I want her to sit on my face.  Ass first, I love her ass.”

“Let’s wake her up and take her for a bath.”

“Nah, let her sleep, she’s tuckered out.”

“Fuckered out.”

“Well, I’m going for a bath.  I’m tired of feeling sticky.”

Holly lay on her cushions, still faking sleep, listening to some of them get up and leave for Pink Diamond’s palatial bathroom, which had been intended for relaxation and the enjoyment of warmth and peace and fragrance, not the basic hygiene of grubby Quartzes.  Still, it was preferable that they  _ wanted _ to clean themselves up after an orgy like that.  She certainly did.  So after a plausible interval, she might wake up and do the same.  It felt like a good plan.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Incredibly and inadvisably, there is more.

The rooms created for Pink Diamond had also been designed to accommodate guests of any size that she might choose to honour, so the fixtures of the great bathroom weren’t of an unusably huge scale for lesser Gems.  On a more practical note, if they were inaccessible to Pearls that would have been inconvenient, so there were, for example, steps built into the tiled walls to enable smaller Gems to climb and reach things, seats of various heights, and other such signs that Pink Diamond, whatever her foibles, had been a thoughtful and generous hostess.  The largest sunken oval bath was big enough for Quartzes to swim laps in, and a few of them were doing that, having a friendly race, while others lounged around the sides or lay in the smaller pools, stunned into quiescence by the greater heat.  Others still were shampooing and soaping each other by the shower taps, or having a very giggly wet-towel-snapping fight.  In short, they had overrun the place.  

Holly stood hesitating in the doorway, wondering if she should try to make a big entrance or slip in quietly.  There was still a part of her that thought these were shocking goings-on and the correct thing was to stride in there and whip some purple and orange bottoms until they were properly chastened, but that part would just have to adapt to circumstances.  Using this bathroom was a small luxury she’d permitted herself from time to time, because there ought to be  _ some _ sort of perks to a job like hers and also she could justify it as making sure everything was in good order just in case Blue Diamond should happen to visit and feel like a relaxing soak.  She’d have to get used to the fact that it wasn’t her special place any more.  

She’d felt extremely strange walking here naked except for her boots; after wriggling out of her knotted top she had tried to put on her capelet again, since that would clearly be a popular choice, but after a very quiet search among the still-sleeping Quartzes in the lounge she had eventually found it crumpled under a couch, evidently having been used as a wiper by a  _ lot _ of people.  She could always create a replacement but at the moment she still wasn’t feeling very energetic, so she decided to wait until she’d had her bath and felt somewhat refreshed.  Right now she felt distinctly bedraggled, not unlike that sticky, crumpled capelet, and big entrances were for times when you felt intimidatingly fabulous, so she decided to go in quietly and not call undue attention to herself.

Wearing heels on a tile floor and being the only blue person in a pink room meant that was easier said than done.  There was a lot of covering noise because of the splashing and snapping and squealing and laughing but she felt hugely conspicuous.  She reached the shower taps and stopped, because there was a very large Amethyst right in front of her leaning against the wall, bent forward with her head on her folded arms, moaning and trembling as her kneeling friend worked her hand into her pussy.  Holly stared; she had four fingers inside, and she felt a twitch inside her own pussy just looking.  Was she honestly going to put her whole hand in?  She’d heard about that but thought it was done only with smaller Gems, not thick-fingered Quartzes.  

They were both totally occupied by what they were doing; they didn’t even notice her beside them.  Another was watching them, masturbating; Holly recognised XL and at that moment XL noticed and recognised her.  Her face brightened from its hazy expression of preoccupied lust  and she grinned.

“Holly Boo!  You’re up!  How’re you feeling?”  Before giving her a chance to answer she dodged around the fisting couple, framed Holly’s cheeks with her hands and kissed her eagerly.

“I’m all right,” Holly said, trying to decide whether she was going to tolerate yet another silly new nickname.  “My knees feel better.”  Even if the nickname was silly, the kiss had been very nice; she decided to be bold and leaned in for another, slipping her tongue into XL’s mouth.  XL gave a soft little pleased grunt and wrapped her arms around Holly’s waist, pulling her in close so that their breasts and bellies were pressed together, then slid her hands down to grasp Holly’s bottom and knead at the soft cheeks.

_ Say something nice,  _ Holly told herself, and came up with nothing, but the kissing gave her time to think.  XL’s lips were so soft and warm, her mouth so juicily wet.  Holly traced over her lips with the tip of her tongue before sliding between them again; XL gently sucked, rumbling softly in her throat, while her hands just groped, making the bruises on Holly’s buttocks ache.  

“You’re horny again already?”  XL slid her fingers down the cleft of Holly’s bottom and rubbed over her anus a moment before pressing them in between her labia.  “Yep, you feel nice and wet.”

“Please don’t, I want to get clean again first.”

“Oh, sure,” XL said, pulling her hand away immediately.  “Want me to help?  Wash your hair, scrub your back?”

“You don’t need to do that, my dear, you’re not a servant.”

“No, I’d be doing it for fun.  You know lots of us are gonna want to spoil you, right?  You seem like you’d enjoy feeling all pampered in between rough fucks.”

“Stop hogging Holly,” said a voice from below, and XL staggered a bit when Carnelian punched her lightly in the back of one knee.  “She’s for everyone.  Right, Holls?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Holly said quickly.  

“I think we should have a few ground rules,” said Carnelian.  “Like not a lot, that’s no fun, but just so everyone knows the drill.  We can put them up on posters; you like posters telling people what to do, right Holly?”

“Um, yes.”  Posters around the station instructing the garrison on how to fuck her.  It made both her face and her cunt feel hot just thinking about it.

“So Rule One, no hogging Holly, Holly is for everyone.”

“That can be Rule Two,” said XJ, who had noticed them and come over from the towel fight.  She was out of breath and glowing with exertion, her breasts rising and falling rapidly.  She wiped her face on her towel and leaned in to kiss Holly’s cheek with a smack.  “Rule One, Holly’s got to be into it, so ask nicely and let her choose.”

“If people ask every time that will slow us down,” Holly objected.  “You can assume I am.  Into… it.”

“Nah.  Anyway, I like asking you if you want it and hearing you say yes.  That’s part of the fun for me.”

“Holly wants to get clean,” XL said, “so let’s not slow that down.  Holly-dolly, you want any help?  It’s okay if you don’t.”

“If you  _ want _ to do it, then yes.”

“Yay!”

They were pleasantly but confusingly eager about it.  They helped her off with her boots and the sad remains of her trouser legs, sat her on a stool and shampooed her hair, surprisingly gently, and bathed her body, with a completely unsurprising emphasis on her breasts, thighs and bottom.

“Were they really so filthy?” she asked Carnelian, who was standing between her legs and soaping her breasts assiduously with both hands.

“When I’m done you’ll have the cleanest titties in the galaxy,” Carnelian said, grinning.

“You don’t need a pretext to touch them.  They’re here for you to enjoy.”  It was still difficult to speak sweetly to Carnelian.  She had just spent too long being infuriated by her; impatience kept sneaking back into her voice.

“And,” said XJ, who was combing out Holly’s damp hair, “you can’t suck ‘em if they’re all soapy.  Well, you can but gross.”

“That is  _ such _ a good point,” said Carnelian, and began rinsing Holly’s chest with the shower hose.

“Thank you, my dear.”  

“You should call me Carnie, I like that.”  She licked between Holly’s breasts for a taste-test, gazing up at her with big amber eyes.  “Mmmyum.”

“Carnie,” Holly said faintly.  Carnelian was massaging her breasts and sucking her nipples; XJ was rubbing and kissing her neck and shoulders and XL had taken it upon herself to rub her feet.  She felt weak and dreamy and warm and very, very spoilt.   _ They should always have been taking care of me like this.  I would have been nicer to them if they had!   _ Her mouth fell open a little and she moaned, gripping handfuls of Carnelian’s thick fluffy hair.

“Time to wash your pussy, lucky last,” XJ murmured, sliding her hands down Holly’s back and around her waist to reach between her legs.  “Tilt your hips, push it out.  That’s good.  Carnie, I know you’re in tiddy heaven but can you spray the water here?  Thanks.”  Her strong fingers slipped between Holly’s lips and made her gasp.

 

“She’s hooting and Hollying again,” said Peek, tossing her head back lazily to indicate what was going on behind her.  The hot water rippled around her shoulders.

“Hardy-har,” said Vee, not quite opening her eyes.  The hot pool always got her too relaxed to move much, but she could clearly hear Holly’s throaty cries.  She could certainly project her voice.  It was nice to hear her sounding happy instead of mean, at least, but Vee was far from deciding Holly was A-okay now.

The thing about Holly Blue, the thing that had meant they never seriously hated her, was that to put it mildly she wasn’t shit.  The Betas had never known anything else but the Primes had been assigned to a competent Agate before the evacuation, and all knew that a competent Agate was one of the worst things that could happen to you.  Holly was mean all right, she yelled and shoved and yanked them around and she cracked the whip, but she was full of hollow bluster.  She didn’t have the patience to devise and enforce the really miserable punishments that Shadow Agate had specialised in; she would just bawl you out and then fuck off to her room where she spent  _ hours _ doing who knew what, and all that time they had precious free time to mess around together, to watch the humans and the cute doofy things they did, to sing each other songs and tell each other stories and read the books in the library that Holly thought they were too dumb to understand.  There was a reason she’d been given this job at the ass end of space looking after a pet Pink project that Blue Diamond only kept going for sentimental reasons, and it wasn’t because she was an asset to the Homeworld Army.

Hypotheses about what Holly was up to holed up in her office had ranged from figuring out a Choosening programme to breed the perfect human (with wings and a tail and maybe laser eyes) through to building a giant robot Blue Diamond to finally fuck her right, and it had almost been an anticlimax to have it settled when Skinny, who liked fiddling with things she wasn’t supposed to touch, found a back way into her computer files and discovered she had spent three thousand years writing an incredibly overwrought series of romantic fantasy novels about a humble but devoted warrior in the service of a mighty azure queen.  On one hand they had all laughed themselves sick at the Cerulean Chronicles; on the other hand, then they had all reread all of them about fifty times because new books came into the library so rarely and irregularly, a few every hundred or hundred and fifty years if they were lucky.  Then there were the dramatic readings and re-enactments and the annual costume contest.  They had really got a out of those dumb books.  And it was hard to honestly hate someone, or to be really scared of her, when you knew how weird her imagination was and how awful she was at writing dialogue.

That didn’t add up to liking her, though, not for Vee at least.  There had always been a good-size faction of them who kept wistfully saying how nice it could be if Holly would just lighten up and be nice, and then another that said it was better to accept that she was an asshole, not expect her to change and enjoy everything else they could.  Vee herself had vacillated between the two.  She tilted more and more towards the latter as the years went by because she was just so  _ frustrated _ by how fucking  _ dense _ Holly was not to see how pointless it was to keep acting this way.  This was home now and that was okay.  They had the humans to look after, cute little buggers, and that was worth doing.  There weren’t going to be any prizes for how snappy anyone’s salute was.  In the end Holly  _ had _ changed her tune but not because she’d ever figured out how dumb she was being, just because she was humiliated (and oh, that had been priceless) and she must have finally figured out how bored and lonely she was without some cockeyed dream of doing such a great job that she’d be invited back to Blue Diamond’s side, like Cerulean after her years in exile from Queen Azzurra’s court.  Vee’s disappointment at that made her realise that in fact, she had always hoped for better from Holly.

So now it seemed like they had a new Holly, and she was really damn confusing.  Holly had always been hot in an overripe sort of way (probably at least half of why the wistful faction were wistful) but now she was hot and  _ available. _  Talk about weird.  Vee had taken her turn, it was irresistible, but she felt strange about it.  Holly had been lying on her back among the cushions by then, her pussy and inner thighs a glistening, creamy mess, her breasts speckled with love-bites, and she’d held up her arms eagerly to pull Vee down on top of her for a kiss.  

“Are you sure you want me to do this?” Vee had asked when their lips parted.

“Of course I am,” Holly had snapped back, before catching her breath guiltily and saying, “I’m sorry, sweetie, I want it so badly I got impatient.”

So crabby old Holly was still in there.  It was sort of reassuring, less like she’d been replaced.  “What’s my name?”  Holly was notoriously erratic about remembering names; there weren’t that many of them so either she was trying to put them down by pretending to forget who they were or she really had some kind of think-glitch that stopped her holding onto them.

Holly looked blank for a moment, but then she said, “You’re 5-8YV,” and then, and somehow this had sounded more genuinely warm than the “sweetie,” “Do they call you Vee?”

“Yeah.”  Vee couldn’t help breathing faster; Holly was feeling between her legs, rubbing her cock, and it felt incredible.  She usually preferred having just a pussy and honestly felt a bit silly with a big dick waggling around in front of her, so she’d tried to rise to the occasion with a compromise.

“Please, Vee, give this to me,” Holly whimpered.  “A sweet little one like this is exactly what I want.”  So she’d fucked her as deep as she could and held her as she cried out and came, and lay cradled by her soft body for a precious minute before she was nudged in the butt by the next in line.  But Holly had kissed her again before she’d got up and made a little contented whiny sound that she’d sort of liked.  She’d curled up afterwards with Peek, her best friend, who hadn’t been able to stop gushing and giggling about getting Holly to suck her off, and that had got her giggly too and she’d ridden Peek’s dick until they were both pancaked with exhausted pleasure.

Peek reached over and broke her reverie by pinching her boob.  She yelped and splashed her in the face.

“Whatcha thinking about with that spacey look on your face?” Peek asked, wiping her eyes.

“We had a nice fuck last night.  I was reminiscing.”

“Already?  Your memory’s either really good or really bad.  I think they’re done hosing down Holly.”  Peek twisted around to fold her arms on the rim of the pool and rest her chin on them, and Vee shifted in behind her and put her own chin on Peek’s shoulder.  Jay and Ellie were helping Holly Blue to her feet, laughing affectionately as she staggered, Carnie pushing her butt from behind.  Her hair was trailing wet over her shoulders, and the fact it wasn’t up in its everlasting buns made her look  _ more _ naked than just having no clothes on.  They took an arm each and led her over to their hot pool.  Gems were whistling at Holly; she was already flushed and now she was looking increasingly puffed up, giving them little fluttery waves of her fingers.  Peek elbowed Vee excitedly, and Vee blew a little raspberry against her cheek.

Holly gasped when she put one soft foot in the water; Vee noticed that although her feet were large they had kind of a dainty shape with high arches, not like the broad flat feet almost all of them had.

“You okay?” Ellie asked, steadying her.  

“Thank you, my dear, it’s —  _ pure _ blue Gems are quite sensitive to heat.  We’re delicate, you know.”

“You’re not  _ delicate,  _ you’re tough as old boots.”

“But I’ve never wanted to fuck an old boot,” said Jay gallantly.

“Perhaps I’ll just sit on the side while I get used to the temperature,” Holly said.  She carefully lowered her rump to the rim of the pool and let both feet sink into the water.  Carnie just rolled in over the side with a splash; she liked her water the hotter the better.  She surfaced with her hair plastered over her face and squirted a stream of water out between her teeth.  

“You guys,” she said, “we’re writing the Rules of Holly.  We’re gonna do posters, you know, like she likes.  Rule One, Fuck Holly.”

“That’s not rule one, you little ratbag,” said Jay, sliding into the water on one side of Holly while Ellie did the same on the other.

“No, I like that rule,” said Holly.  “It’s very kind of you to look after me, Jay dear, but I’m quite capable of deciding what I want.  I want to be fucked; isn’t that a nice, simple thing to want?” she asked brightly.  “So much better than wanting things I’m never going to have; something I can have in plenty thanks to all of you.”

“Rule one stands!” Carnie crowed.  “Okay, so Rule Two, No Hogging Holly, Holly Is For Everyone.  Rule Three, Holly Needs To Come, Get Her Off Before You’re Done.  I like that one!  It rhymes!  Rule Four — got anything you really don’t want us to do, Holls?  Anything that feels bad or grosses you out?  Like I’ve got a rule no one fucks me in the ass.  I know  _ you _ like that, that’s cool, I just never have.  Everyone knows so it’s never a problem.”

“I don’t  _ think _ there’s anything,” Holly faltered.  “I — er — I wouldn’t want to reject anything out of hand…”

“Sometimes you  _ know _ you don’t want to do something and sometimes you need to try it to figure it out.  If you want to try  _ everything _ out and then say there are some things you don’t want to do again, you can.  If the rules aren’t  _ editable _ they’re shitty rules,” Vee said, in somewhat of a rush towards the end.

Peek turned and looked at her, half smiling.  “Oh, she speaks.  I  _ thought _ you were being very quiet.”

“Thank you, uh, Vee,” said Holly, looking relieved.  “I’ll bear that in mind.  If there  _ is _ anything I don’t enjoy.”

“Rule Four, This Space Intentionally Left Blank,” said Carnie, nodding.

“So you’ve liked everything so far?” Ellie asked, leaning her chin on Holly’s knee.

“I have  _ loved _ everything so far,” Holly said with feeling.  “Even things I didn’t expect to… well, the, um, the element of humiliation…”  She was playing with her long striped hair, twisting it round her fingers, looking down and blushing.  “The relinquishing control.  Abandoning my dignity and acting only on this overwhelming physical  _ need.”   _ The blush darkened and her face tensed for a moment as if she was making an effort.  “I’m getting wet again just thinking about it,” she mumbled.  

“Yeah?  Let’s see.  Spread ‘em,” Ellie said.

Holly bit her lip and parted her thighs.

“C’mon, wider than  _ that.   _ Don’t you want everyone to see?”

“We know you  _ do,” _ Jay said, giggling.  “No reason to act shy  _ now.” _

Holly breathed in and spread them wider, tilting her hips and leaning back on her hands.  “Is that better?  C-can everyone see?”  The Gems in the hot pool gathered around her in a tight half circle, Vee still leaning on Peek’s back.  She slid her hands down the gentle bulge of Peek’s tummy to feel her cock thickening up, and wrapped one around it to lightly rub.  Peek gave a soft, happy little grunt and wriggled her butt back against Vee to say thank you.

“That’s great,” Ellie said, and Holly got a little smile on her face that was both endearing and somewhat ridiculous.  “You’re really a slut for praise, aren’t you?  You’ll get a lot of it if you’re this good.”  Now Holly’s expression was a weird combination of insulted, scandalised and increasingly turned on.  Her hips twitched a bit.  Her pubic hair was damp from washing and softly curly.

“That’s real nice, but you know we want to see more, right?” Carnie asked.  “You can’t just talk about how wet your pussy is and not show us the juicy parts.”

Holly reached between her thighs a little awkwardly, brushing apart the curls with her fingers.  Her labia peeped through, thick and puffy, and the hood of her clitoris.  They all looked a little inflamed; not really surprising.  Everyone leaned forward a little.

“Let me help,” said Jay.  She reached in to part Holly’s lips and show their slick inner surface.  “Ooh, look how shiny.”  She kept tracing her fingertips up and down their edges, travelling around to let everyone admire them, while Holly quivered.

“You know, usually I hate to wait but teasing her is  _ awesome,” _ said someone at the back.

“I know, right?  Her pussylips are really fun to play with, too, real stretchy.”

“Trust me, we all have a  _ deep  _ familiarity with Holly’s pussy now.”

“I don’t, I only fucked her in the ass.  I still have the pussy to look forward to.”  

“Ass is best.”

“Yeah, you would think that.  I’ll make up my own mind.”

Holly’s eyes kept darting to whoever spoke and back to Jay; she was beginning to get that dazed look Vee had noticed before, where her mouth hung open a little, and her breathing had roughened.  “Would you like to try now?” she asked faintly.

“I think that might be hogging Holly, though,” Jay said.  

“Oh,  _ now _ you think you might be hogging her?” someone asked, to general laughter.

“What?” said Jay.  “I’ve been taking care of her, I’m just being nice.”

“Jay has a crush on Hol-ly,” someone else sang.

“Do not,” said Jay, grinning.  

“To quote you, like five billion times, ‘She’s so hot, it’s a shame she’s such a bitch.’”

“Lots of people think  _ that,”  _ Jay said, doodling her fingertip around Holly’s clitoris; Holly gave little breathless squeaks when she brushed or nudged it.  “And she’s not a bitch  _ now, _ she’s our sweet kitty.”

“Oh Jay — oh Jay — please — please —”  Holly’s hips were twitching and dots of sweat were breaking out on her skin.

“Holly Blue is desperate, pass it on.”

“I don’t think it counts as hogging if she’s asking for someone by name.”

“Okay, c’mere, Holls.”  Jay got up and slid her hands under Holly’s buttocks, lifting her and pulling her in to ride with her legs around Jay’s waist.  She hoisted her up, Holly’s breasts pressing against her face, and stepped back, carrying her into the deeper middle of the pool.  Holly whimpered softly, clutching at Jay’s hair.  Jay turned her face up to kiss Holly as she adjusted her grip, balancing more of Holly’s weight on one arm so she could slide her other hand in from behind, pushing two fingers into Holly’s pussy.  “Izzat good?  Izzat what Holly-dolly needs?”  She didn’t get an answer so much as a frantic mumbling moan interspersed with sloppy licking at her mouth.

“Hey.”

Vee blinked, startled; she’d been so drawn into watching them she’d forgotten to move her hand for Peek, who was looking back at her over her shoulder, half-smiling.  “Sorry, babe.”

“It’s okay, I can tell you’re really into this. Want to switch round?  Sit on my dick and keep watching?”

“Fuck yes.”

“Here we go.”  Peek shifted behind her and pulled her into her lap, nudging her cock into place with one hand, filling Vee’s pussy as she sank down.  “Now you can get fucked while Holly gets fucked, I  _ know _ you’ll like that.”  

Jay was slowly turning in the water, letting it swirl around her and Holly, kissing her while she fingered her, and Holly moaned and rocked her hips.  “Good, Holly?  Good?  That’s it, get it.”

“Want you to fuck me,” Holly panted.

“Okay.  Sounds good,” Jay said cheerfully.  “Hmm, where am I gonna put you?”  She carried Holly back to the edge and let her down, turning her and pushing her to bend over the side of the pool, ass up.  Holly lay on her belly with her head turned to one side, breathing heavily, her hair in damp squiggles over her shoulders; her eyes were hazy and her lips were shiny wet.

“Want me to hold you like that?” Peek said by Vee’s ear.  She nodded eagerly and Peek lifted her to lie alongside Holly, just as Jay slid into her cunt.  Holly’s eyes widened and she gasped.

“Ooooh…” Jay crooned.  “You feel  _ good,  _ Holly.  Nice snug fit.”  She squeezed Holly’s soft buttocks, kneading them together and apart in big semicircles.  Holly grunted softly, arching her back to rock her hips, and her expression turned blissful, eyelids fluttering closed and tongue flickering over her lips.  Soft, rhythmic splashing accompanied Jay and Peek’s gentle thrusting.  Vee shifted, trying to get comfortable with her breasts pressed under her — that was it, now she could just enjoy the deep, sweet rub inside her and watching Holly’s face.

“Copycats,” said Jay, laughing, and Peek blew her a raspberry.

Vee reached out to touch Holly’s hand, curled near her face, and Holly grabbed her fingers, her eyes opening.  “Vvv — Vee?”  It was sort of ridiculous how it made her feel hearing Holly use her nickname, all goofy-sweet and tickled.

“Yeah, it’s me.  You know you look beautiful?”

“I look — ohhh — all messy and — ah!   _ Ah! _  Jay, that’s — just like that, just like —”  Holly was panting, her eyes rolling up and her tongue protruding a little, so Vee had to bite her own tongue a little so as not to laugh and spoil it for her.  She seemed to be coming pretty explosively, jerking and clutching at Vee’s hand until she relaxed with a deep, shuddering moan.  Her eyes slid closed again, her plump lips softly parted and her cheeks flushed indigo.

“You like it if I keep going, right?” Jay asked.

“Mmm…” Holly said faintly.

“Race you,” said Peek.

“I already got her off!”

“Race you to get Vee off before you get her off  _ again.” _

“Oh, you’re  _ on.” _

Peek quickened her pace and Vee caught her breath.  “Oh, fuck!”

“Yup,” Peek said, giggling and grabbing her butt.

Vee could hear the others placing wagers.  “C’mon, it’s gotta be Vee, we know what she’s like.  Safe bet.”

“Holly’s a beast, I’m betting on her.”

“Whoops!  Shit.”  Jay had pulled her hips back to change angles and Holly was slithering limply down from the side of the pool.

“Are you okay?” Vee asked, tightening her grip on Holly’s hand, and got no reaction.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jay said, trying to bundle Holly back up, rolling her onto her back and giving her a push.  

“She didn’t poof so what the fuck did you do to her?” someone asked in the back.

Peek gave Vee a little boost from behind and she scrambled up on the tiles on her hands and knees, half extremely frustrated to have to stop in the middle of such a promising, tingly fuck, one quarter worried about Holly and one quarter just confused and curious.  She reached over and patted Holly’s face at the same time Jay shook her shoulders.

“I think she  _ fainted,”  _ said Jay.

“That  _ is _ good dick!”

“Seriously,” Jay said, “I think it was the heat.  Help me with her, Vee.”  Between the two of them they hoisted her up.  Holly’s head rolled loosely and she moaned faintly.  They carried her to the cold plunge pool and sat her on the side, Vee supporting her from behind and Jay scooping up handfuls of cold water to pat onto her cheeks.  The others gathered round, staring and murmuring.  After a moment Holly groaned a little and lifted her head.

“Hey, Holly Blue,” Jay said softly.  “You tapped out, huh?”

“What happened?  What did you do to me?” Holly asked, going from semiconscious straight to indignant.  

“Nothing!”

“You just came too hard or something,” Vee said.  “Quit squirming.”

“Let  _ go _ of me,” Holly snapped.

“Okay, okay.”  She let go of Holly’s waist and shuffled back on her knees a bit.  Holly made a valiant effort to pull herself into a more dignified position, at least with her knees together, and pawed her hair back from her face.

“You’re okay, you know,” Ellie said, crouching down beside them.  “Feeling a little freaked out?”

“That — that’s never happened before,” Holly said, still making a futile effort to tidy her hair. 

“Like you said,” Jay said, “you’re sensitive to heat, right?  So now we know and we don’t fuck you in the hot tub any more.  It’ll be fine.  Hey, I’m sorry if you were scared, I wouldn’t’ve kept going if I’d known.”

“I wasn’t  _ scared,  _ that’s an  _ asinine _ suggestion.”  Although she was still visibly wobbly, Holly pushed herself off from the side of the pool and ducked under the water, leaving them staring.  

 

Holly stayed under the water as long as she could bear it, her hands over her face, hot with mortification despite the relief of the cold.  Would they have got bored and scattered when she came up, or would they all still be staring at how pathetic and ridiculous she was?  It wasn’t  _ fair,  _ she had been feeling so  _ good,  _ she’d forgotten everything except the luscious feeling of Jay pumping her and it had seemed to her that she was really,  _ really  _ wanted, and then she had to do something as bizarre and unnecessary as  _ fainting,  _ like a  _ human _ or something.  They would think she was weak and fragile and cast her aside and she couldn’t even blame them.

She dragged her hands down from her face and opened her eyes.  8XF was floating just in front of her face, staring at her curiously.  When their eyes met she gave Holly a huge jagged grin and then blew bubbles in her face.  Holly uttered a squawk that came out as bubbles too and shot to the surface, her hair plastered over her face.  XF popped up too, guffawing.  There were Quartzes bobbing all around them, laughing raucously.

“Ya cooled off?” 7XK asked, reaching over to wipe her hair off her face.

“Don’t feel bad,” 2QB said, “everyone’s got a flaw, right?  I’ve got a trick knee.”

“My peripheral vision’s shit,” someone else said.

“I can’t remember numbers.”

“Heights make me dizzy.”

“I’m a tad skinny.”

She looked around at them, baffled and irritated.  “And you don’t care?”

“Well, c’mon,” said XL, floating on her back.  “You always told us we were crap.  We knew it wasn’t true.  We  _ like _ being us, even if we are a little weird.”

“I think ‘faints in hot water’ is kind of an endearing foible.”

“Get you,  _ endearing foible. _  You been reading the  _ chapter _ books again?”

“I think it’s pronounced  _ fwah-blay.” _

They were laughing and splashing and ducking each other and honestly, not one of them seemed to care that she’d disgraced herself.  And then someone under the water bit her on the ass and she screamed.

“Whoa!” Jay had been out of her sight for a minute but she couldn’t have been far; she threw one arm around Holly protectively _(protectively!_ absurd) and plunged the other below the water, pulling it up a moment later with her fist locked in XF’s tangled curls.  “What’d you do, Sharky?”

“She  _ bit _ me!” Holly exclaimed, with a shameful hope that Jay would give XF a thrashing.  That was no way for an Agate to think.  She should handle her  _ own _ thrashings.  This was exactly the sort of thing you got when you went soft on your Quartzes, insubordination and buttock-biting.

“It was just a nibble,” XF said hopefully.  “She looked so tasty.”

“You can’t just  _ bite _ her!  She’s not used to it!”  Jay gave XF’s head a good shake.  “You knucklehead, you wanna put her off when we just got started?  Now apologise.”

“Sorry Holly,” XF said, not very contritely.  They really weren’t afraid of her at  _ all  _ any more, were they?  Well, obviously not, if she’d bitten her like that in the first place.  How was “nice” Holly supposed to handle something like this?  Her notions of a “do anything you want to me” policy had not included biting.

“I don’t know if I should forgive you.  It was a painful bite.”

“What I bite I always kiss better,” XF said, attempting a winsome smile.  “If you’re okay with a little rough stuff I’ll take  _ really _ good care of you after.”

“Are you seriously suggesting I  _ let _ you bite me?”

“Lick, suck, bite, I have a  _ tiny _ bit of an oral fixation.”  She said it as if it were perfectly reasonable and that was almost disarming.

“I — will give it due consideration.  But don’t get ideas.  And  _ don’t _ do it again.”

“Yeah,” said Jay, “if you want a bite of Holly’s juicy ass you have to ask  _ nice.”   _ Under the water she gave Holly’s bottom a soothing rub, and kissed her on the cheek.  “Like I’m asking  _ very _ nicely, beautiful Holly-dolly, cushiony luxury ass… I didn’t get to come before.  Can we finish off?”  She slid her fingers between Holly’s thighs from behind, circling their tips against her lips.  “Or start over.  Mmm?”  She licked Holly’s cheek, a long warm stroke with a flick at the tip.  

“Dude, that is  _ fiendish,”  _ XF said gleefully.  “Look at her  _ face.” _

“You just gotta know how to handle her,” Jay purred, stroking.  “Holly’s a fancy lady.”

“A fancy lady who bends over panting if you rub her pussy right,  _ obviously.” _

“Best kind.”

Holly shuddered, humiliated and aroused and sore.  “Do you want to do it here?” she managed to ask.

“Nah, I wanna be more comfy, don’t you?  Let’s put you up on that nice massage bench thingy.”  Jay boosted her onto the side of the pool and scrambled up beside her.  A gaggle of Gems followed them to the bench, laughing and jostling and laying bets and calling dibs.

“Just lie down, let’s make it easy on you.”  Jay pressed her down onto the padded bench and climbed on astride her.

“I’m not  _ fragile,”  _ Holly protested irritably.

“Of course you’re not fuckin’ fragile, just let me be nice to you once in a while.  Unless you  _ want _ your hair pulled and your ass slapped, I can do that too.”  Jay also appeared to think that was perfectly reasonable.  “Hell, if you  _ want _ me to I’ll gang up with Sharky and kick your ass around the room and fuck you face-down on the floor.”

“Um.  You may be nice to me for the present,” Holly said.  There was a certain alarming visceral appeal to the thought but she did  _ not  _ feel equal to pursuing it just now.  It was a lot easier to kiss Jay as she massaged her breasts, slid one hand down over her belly to cup between her legs, slipped two fingers into her cunt while her thumb circled her clitoris and reduced her to whimpering and begging.  “I thought you wanted to fuck me.  Why don’t you  _ fuck _ me?”

“Because it’s so much fun teasing you first.  Plus I like feeling you get all sloppy wet.  You know you’re like,  _ unusually _ wet, right?  You’re practically sitting in a puddle.”

“I — I  _ tried _ to make myself what you would like.  If I’ve overdone —”

“No no no, you did a great job.  C’mon Holly, you should know that.  Deep and soft and snug and wet, that’s perfect.  Lift your legs up a little higher, that’s good.  Here it comes.”  She sank her cock into Holly’s depths with a long contented sigh, lowering the weight of her body onto hers.  “This okay?  Not too heavy?”

“H-heavy is good.  I want to — want to feel —”  Holly bit her lip and wrapped her legs tight around Jay’s waist.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’ll have any problem feeling this.”  Jay rolled into her with a hearty grunt and Holly cried out in delight, clutching at her back.  She was surrounded by cheers and filthy comments and filled by heat and pleasure; the thought that she must look absurd with her feet bobbing in the air quickly sank from view as the pace quickened and the feeling swelled.  Jay’s forehead was pressed to hers, her thick hair falling around Holly’s face like a curtain, and her face was ecstatic, eyelids fluttering and mouth panting.  Holly kissed her greedily, sliding her hands down to grip Jay’s buttocks, clenching sharply with each inward thrust, such hard solid muscle under the velvety fat.  

“Stick your finger in my asshole,” Jay panted.

“Like this?”

“Fuck!”

“Sorry, sorry —”

“Good fuck!  Deeper!  Oh Holly, Holly, that feels so good, feels so good…”  Jay pressed wet, smacking kisses against her cheeks, pumping fast and grunting breathlessly, and the surge built until it spiked up into Holly’s belly and convulsed her with joy.  This time she was aware she was — not  _ screaming,  _ screaming seemed excessive —  _ voicing _ her delight quite loudly.

_ “Aaah!” _

“Sing it, Holly!”  Laughter and applause.

“Aw, look how her little toes curl up.”

A second, stronger pulse ran through her and this time she was prepared to call what burst out of her a scream.  Jay was groaning as she came too, copiously, the overflow squelching out in time with her weakening thrusts.  Together they panted to a standstill, lips nuzzling against each other, sighing as the intensity faded and became a warm soft full-body glow.  At what point, Holly wondered, was it polite to take your finger out of the other Gem’s fundament?  She actually wanted to play with Jay’s bottom some more, to doodle her finger around; it felt  _ interesting.   _ That would just have to be a mental note for another time, because the others were waiting.  She reluctantly withdrew it.

“Oh, thank you, baby,” Jay sighed.

“Have you decided which way you prefer?”

“Mmm, nah.  Needs  _ extensive _ testing of all options.”  Jay kissed her sweetly.  “It’ll take a really long time to be sure.  Think you can bear with me?”

“Yes, my precious Jay.”

Jay chuckled softly and rubbed their noses together.  

“Holly hog,” said XF, slapping Jay on the ass.

“It’s all right, dear, you can have a turn too,” Holly said hastily.  “I don’t have favourites.”

“Yeah, I should probably make room,” Jay murmured, kissing her cheek again and pushing herself up, leaving Holly feeling soaked.  The smooth cover of the massage bench was all slick with sweat and other drippings; somehow that wasn’t so noticeable in the heat of the moment.  She thought on the whole she preferred to be fucked on something more absorbent.  She sat up, propping herself up with her arms; the movement squished more warm leakage from her pussy and that made her face burn.  They all seemed to enjoy the show, though; there were cheers and whistles.  

“Goopy Holly!”

“We should take pictures for the posters.”

“Oh no no no,” Holly said, startled.

“Why not?  You look so great!”

“I don’t even have my hair up.  What must I look like?”

They exchanged baffled glances.

“Like a really beautiful Gem who just got well and truly fucked,” XF said.

“Yeah, queen of the sluts,” said someone else.

“You’re fishin’ for compliments right now, right? Jay asked, poking her gently in the chest.

“But if you wanna put your hair up first that’s okay!”

“No, I don’t want to take pictures, if it’s all the same to you,” Holly said fretfully.  “That is, um, why would you want to just look when you can touch?”

“That is  _ such _ a good point!” XF said cheerfully, sitting down beside her.  She stroked Holly’s hair back from her face and gathered it together at the nape of her neck, gently twisting it into a coil and wrapping it around her hand.  “You do have really pretty hair, up or down.  Sorry about the bities.  It was just high spirits, you know that, right?”  She gave Holly a hopeful, beseeching grin.

“Humph.  High spirits that left a mark.”

“Did it?  Have you looked?”

“It’s not easy to see my own bottom,” Holly pointed out, still pouting.

“I’ll take a look.  Just turn round.  There you go.”

Holy obliged, wondering why she bothered; it felt oddly pleasant to have her hair held like this, though.  She rolled onto one hip, facing away, and asked, “Well, what do you see?”

“A nice ass.  A little goopy.  Starting to look a little beat-up, I gotta say.  You bruise easy, don’t you?”

“I have a delicate complexion,” Holly grumbled.  “This is what happens when people  _ grab _ my hips in moments of ecstasy.”

“Or slap your ass to watch it jiggle,” XF pointed out.  She slipped her thumb down between Holly’s buttocks and parted them.  “I’m looking  _ real _ carefully and I’m still not seeing my bite mark.”

“You won’t see it in  _ there, _ it was definitely on the — the lower slopes.”

“I see something cute though.”

“If you’re talking about my  _ anus _ don’t be  _ coy.” _

“I’m talking about your asshole, actually.”  She rubbed her thumb over it and Holly bit her lip.  “Anyway, I can only see like half your ass when you’re sitting like that.  C’mon, roll on your tummy, that’s good.  Hey, if you straddle the bench right you can hump it, that’ll feel nice, right?”

“Um,” Holly said, trying to get herself positioned as requested without falling off the slippery bench.  XF was still holding her hair, and even if she liked how it felt she did not like the thought of slipping while she was holding it tight.  “Like this?”  She peered back over her shoulder.

“Just like that, fuck yeah.”  XF scooted in closer, circling the rim of Holly’s anus with the pad of her thumb.  Holly found she couldn’t watch her do it; she turned her head and buried her face in her folded arms.  Cries of protest went up.

“Awww!” 

“No fair!”

“You gotta let us see your  _ face,  _ Holly-puss, that’s like half the fun!”

“It’s like half if you’re just watching.  It’s only like a quarter if you get to touch her boobs.  I put it at maybe a sixth if you’re actually fucking her.”

_ “Why _ have you done the  _ math?” _

“I waited a long time for my turn!”

“But  _ math!” _

“C’mon, Holly,” XF said, firmly but not roughly drawing her head back up.  “Let the ladies see your pretty face, yeah?”

_ They are anything but ladies.   _ She lost her train of thought as the tip of XF’s thumb spiralled inward and penetrated her anus, the pressure making it twitch and flutter.  XF was leaning low over her back, she could feel the heat of her, the soft heavy brush of her breasts and the warm gust of her breath against the gemstone in the back of her head.  Her tongue flickered over it.   _ Oh, that is just sick!   _ Holly gave an involuntary hiss.  She’d felt several people  _ touching _ her gem during last night’s orgy, stroking it, tracing their fingers around it, and the intimacy of that had been shocking enough.   _ Licking _ it was… was making her whimper and press her mound down on the bench restlessly.  XF’s thumb was gently swivelling deeper as she licked, breathing heavily.   _ Is this what she meant about her oral fixation?   _ Her own lips were trembling and she pinched them sharply together between her teeth.  XF was twisting her hair tighter around her hand and the tension was approaching pain.

XF shifted to suck at the nape of her neck, kneading with her tongue, breaking away a moment to mumble against her skin, “This’s prob’ly gonna leave a mark.”

“G-go on.”  Holly gasped as XF’s thumb slipped in to its base.   _ “Oh _ my stars.”

“That’s such a good Holly.”  She slowly twirled her thumb and sealed her mouth to Holly’s neck again, sucking hard and moaning greedily.  Holly briefly felt her teeth, gripping the tender spot where her neck joined her shoulder, before XF breathed in a little guiltily and softened her mouth, swirling her tongue over the place apologetically.

“Don’t chew her up!”

“Just chew her a  _ little _ to tenderise her.”

“Gross.”

“Hey, I for one support slobbering all over Holly.  Gobble her, Sharky.”

XF chuckled against Holly’s nape and slid her mouth to a fresh patch of skin, working it over mercilessly.  Each kiss  _ began _ feeling sweet, shaded through to demanding, and then became pain, a blue-black throb that made Holly shudder and groan.  She couldn’t understand why it was exciting, could only think that there was something outrageously wrong with her to lie here and  _ let _ XF give her a collar of bruises.  She could tell herself it was because her head was immobilised with XF’s hand gripping the coil of her hair tight, but she could have broken away from that if she had really wanted to, and she was pretty sure it would have been enough to tell XF to stop it and let her up.  The teasing motion in her anus was driving her mad.

“How’d’you like it, Holls?”

“Oh please — oh please —  _ hnnn!” _

“Please what?”

Holly whimpered and ground her pussy against the padded bench, though she couldn’t get the angle right lying on her belly.  

“Please  _ what?”  _ XF insisted, and nipped the back of her neck.

_ “Please _ fuck me.”

“Since you ask so nice.”  There was a rough chuckle in XF’s voice.  “It’s gonna be in the tush though, because guess what, mild anal fixation too.”

“That’s not even surprising,” Holly muttered, which got a laugh from the few closest to her who heard it.   _ “Please,”  _ she said more sweetly, tilting her backside up and trying her best to look appealingly over her shoulder.  

“Holy shit that’s effective,” XF said, smothering a giggle.  She hitched herself closer and let go of Holly’s hair to grip her hip with one hand and push her thick cock deep into Holly’s bottom with the other.  A terribly undignified sound burst out of Holly before she could bite it back, greedy and eager and hoarse.  Cheers went up around her and she buried her burning face in her arms, only to feel XF’s hand twist in her hair again and haul her up.  “No hiding.”

Holly pushed herself up on her elbows, trying to relieve the drag on her scalp, but that only got her head pulled back further, and XF began thrusting, grunting happily.

_ “Oh!”   _ She propped herself on one arm and crammed her other hand under her belly and between her legs, frantically rubbing.   _ All that clapping and chanting, that’s for me, that’s because every one of them wants to be doing this to me.   _ Urgent, feverish pleasure blossomed and XF’s dick surged inside her.   _ I’m going to come in front of everyone with this voracious brute ramming me. _  That thought only made the pleasure spike and her hips buck.  

She had shut her eyes to concentrate on how she  _ felt,  _ and because if she couldn't stop everyone seeing her face she could at least stop herself seeing  _ theirs _ , but she was feeling an opposing pull to open them and see her audience and let the full scope of the humiliation she'd let herself in for consume her.  She compromised on opening one eye for a quick peek and there they were, crowding round and practically clambering over each other to get a good look.  How could she feel mortified  _ and _ want to show off, want all of them to see her?   _ Posters of me like this all over the walls.  Rule One, Fuck Holly.   _ Someone had the sheer  _ nerve _ to ejaculate at her, spattering her breasts, and a chorus of whoops went up.  XF hauled back on her hair and flung her other arm around her waist, clutching her tight and thrusting rapidly as she approached a climax.  Her own hands were shaking but she stiffened her fingers, stroked furiously and arched in a spasm of joy that was only sharpened by the shock of feeling XF bite her shoulder.  

She slumped back against XF, who was growing still, panting and hugging her tight.  “Oh, Holly!” she puffed.  “Fu-huh-huck!  Sorry, I — fuck, sorry, I didn’t meant to bite down.  You okay?”

“I’ll… I’ll work out what to do with you later,” Holly breathed.  “You… you animal.”

“Came though, didn’tcha?”  A gusty laugh against her stinging shoulder.  “Aw Holly, I really am sorry ‘bout your shoulder.  Kiss it better?”

“You may.”  She wasn’t expecting much gentleness, so she was surprised at how delicate the kiss was.  

“Didn’t break the skin, but yeah, you do have a pretty good print of my teeth there.”

“It’ll match the one on my bottom, then.  No more for now, thank you very much.”  It seemed to be all right to speak a little more crisply to XF, since she  _ knew _ she’d misbehaved, but she didn’t want to leave the impression she was really angry with her.  She turned her head and angled back to kiss XF on the cheek, forgetting for the moment that was where her gemstone was.  Despite how hot and sweaty they both were it felt cool under her lips.  XF giggled softly.  

_ I hope whoever wants to go next is more gentle, though.   _ But as she turned her attention back to the audience she found the crowd was breaking up, laughing and relaxed.  

“Where’s everyone going?” she asked, dismayed.  

“Not that we wouldn’t  _ like _ to fuck around with you all day,” said 7XK, over her shoulder as she turned away, “but we’ve got stuff to do, or have you forgotten we run a zoo here?”

She’d managed to  _ completely _ forget that it must be getting on for time for the morning maintenance tasks.  Not long ago she would have been striding into the dormitory to chivvy them out to get started.  She felt simultaneously embarrassed, stupid and defensively angry, and she couldn’t even  _ attempt _ a defence because nobody could be taken seriously when she was sitting in a small puddle of her own drippings with a soft cock still wedged halfway up her ass.  She twitched her hips away and felt it slip free, but that only made her leak shamefully.  There was the kind of humiliation and shame that gave her a perverse thrill, and then there was this, and if she couldn’t get angry and yell and slam people around it just made her want to cry.  She would  _ not _ cry.  The sweat on her skin had turned cold.

“We’re not just ditching you though,” Jay said quickly, stepping back in and sitting in front of her.  “I can stay, so can Sharky, we’ll get you cleaned up and soothed down.  It’s all okay.  Aw baby, you’re shivering.”  She leaned over to grab one of the vast pink towels rolled on a shelf and wrapped it around Holly, and she and XF sandwiched her between them in a hug.  She was more or less engulfed in soft, massive breasts and muscular arms and damp, rumpled curly hair.  She buried her face between Jay’s breasts and let a few tears escape silently where they wouldn’t show.  She heard the door close as the last of the others left.

“You’re gonna be okay,” XF murmured.  “Are you hurting anywhere?”

“No,” Holly mumbled.  All her bruises ached but she wasn’t about to complain and look weak.  At least her vagina and anus weren’t too sore, only hot and overly sensitive from heavy stimulation.  She’d done her modifications well; they might be undignified but they were durable.

“But you’re upset.  You can tell us.  You  _ should _ tell us, we don’t want to keep doing things that upset you.  I was an asshole to bite you again, I know better.”

“I don’t mind the bite at all.  Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh?” Jay said, stroking back Holly’s hair.  “Well,  _ that’s _ good.  So what’s eating you?  If it’s not her.”

“I — I’m overtired, I’m not used to all this.  How could I be?”

Jay chuckled.  “That’s a point.  We did throw you in at the deep end.”

“No, I jumped in because I wanted to.  And — and I’m overtired but also disappointed that it stopped unexpectedly.”  That had the virtue of being true, if only part of the truth.  “So because I’m tired I’m being excessively emotional about it.  It’s just silly.”

“Aw, Holly.  That’s okay.  We didn’t realise  _ you _ didn’t realise this was just a quickie before work.”

“That was  _ not _ quick.”

“Quicker than last night,” XF said, giggling.  “But point taken.”

“Whatever we do, we do big,” Jay said.  “You’ll get used to it.”  She kissed Holly’s forehead.  “You don’t feel shaky any more.  That’s good.  You ready to have another bath?  Just to get clean.  If you’re not we can just cuddle you a while more.  We can do whatever makes you feel better.”

“You don’t  _ want _ to fuck me any more?”

“Course we do, we just, you know, we’ve got shit to do today.  P-12’s gonna have twins any day now, no one wants to miss that.  We’ve got a lot of monthly health checks to do.  The water filters and air scrubbers are due for cleaning.  They need us to take care of all that stuff.  You know that, you used to kick our asses if we didn’t do it fast enough.”

“But without running,” XF added.  “We do not run in these halls!”

“You know,” Jay went on, “you  _ never _ needed to yell at us to make sure we took care of the humans.  Anything that’s to keep them healthy and happy, that’s our number one priority.  They’re  _ ours.” _

“Then if I’m stopping you getting on with that you should just leave me.  I’ll clean myself up.  I’m perfectly capable.”  Holly knew she should sit up straight and push them away from her, but she was so comfortable where she was.  

“No, you’re ours too.  We’ve got time.  And I told you, anything I bite I kiss better.  Anyone I fuck like I fucked you, I take care of her after.  That’s just, like, good manners,” XF said, and kissed her shoulder.

They bathed her all over again, gently, cleaned themselves up much more briskly and wrapped her in a clean warm towel.  

“I’d offer to fix your hair up but I freely admit I have no idea how it works,” Jay said as she reformed her clothes.  

“The things I need are in my room anyway,” Holly said.

“So let’s go,” said XF, startling her immensely by picking her up towel and all.

“I  _ can _ walk.”

“You don’t have to!  I’m spoiling you.”  She grinned brilliantly, her jagged teeth shining.  

“If you don’t actually hate it just let her, she loves carrying people,” Jay said, opening the door and going ahead.  She almost bumped into 9-7KT, who was breaking the running rule with verve and skidded to a stop, grabbing Jay’s arm.  

“P-12’s water broke!” she exclaimed.  “Twins incoming!”

“Holy shit, really?  I was betting on a couple more days!”

“I came to get you!”

Jay glanced back guiltily at Holly, who was feeling particularly stupid to be carried in front of a Beta.  She put her arm around XF’s neck and tried to look as if all this was on purpose.

“Oh g’wan,” XF said.  “I’ll take care of Holly and we all know how you are about babies.  Don’t miss it.”

“Babies!” Jay said exultantly.  “I’ll see you soon, Holly.  Let’s go, Kitty!”  They ran off hand in hand.

“Did  _ anyone _ ever take me seriously about the running?” Holly asked wearily.

“I promise not to run holding  _ you,  _ how’s that?  Your dignity is intact.”  XF started off for Holly’s room at a much more sedate pace.  

“My  _ dignity _ has gone the way of — well, my pants,” Holly said.  “Anyway, the rule was meant to reduce accidents.  Don’t think I haven’t seen you all cannoning into each other around corners.”

“That’s just fun, though!  Breaks up the day.  And you can always have more pants.”

“I thought people might like it if I didn’t.”

“Ohoho, saucy Holly.  Strutting round in just your boots?”

“And capelet.  Even nudity should accessorise.  Do you think that would be a popular choice?”

“I think if you wanna get your ass grabbed all day every day it’d be a  _ great _ choice.”

“Maybe I do.”

“And flirty Holly!  I like her.  Here we are.”  XF bumped the door release button with her elbow and carried Holly through.  “Huh.  I always imagined this place tidier.”

She’d forgotten.  The room was  _ such _ a mess and she hadn’t even considered tidying it before she went to offer herself up.  She hadn’t thought anyone would be seeing it.   _ This wouldn’t have happened if I’d just been assigned a Pearl!  Why do I have to do everything myself?   _ The cushion she always used to masturbate was sitting right in the middle of the floor as if it were on display, with a deep dent in it and a very obvious stain.

“I’ve — been — a bit depressed.  Not now!  I feel much better!”  She wriggled free of XF’s arms and put her feet down, clutching the towel around her, and hurried over to her dressing table, following a curving path that she hoped looked natural so the defiled cushion would be in her way and she could unobtrusively kick it under the couch.  She sat down, grabbed her brush and began brushing her hair vigorously.

“I never thought I’d actually see in here though,” XF said, wandering around with her hands on her hips, surveying the place.  “We used to invent stories about what it was like.  Hey, only one big oil painting of Blue Diamond!  You held back.”

“Don’t make fun of Blue Diamond,” Holly snapped, still brushing.  “She gave you a place and a role when you had nothing.”  

“I didn’t make fun of her,” XF said, sounding baffled.  “I was making fun of  _ you. _  In a friendly way.  And you say that like you think I’m not grateful to Blue Diamond.  I love my job.  I have the greatest friends ever and we get to do something really cool and interesting, even if it’s not exactly what Quartzes were made for.  I don’t know why Blue Diamond would ever have any reason to talk to the likes of  _ me,  _ but if she did I would want to say thank you.”  She was close behind Holly now, she could see her reflected in the mirror, and she laid her hand on Holly’s shoulder, her thumb lightly stroking the side of her neck.  “Though I don’t know if you would,” she added with a crooked half-smile.  “Thank you for sticking me way out in Bumfuck, Outer Space with all these yahoos?”

“Blue Diamond has honoured me by placing her confidence in me.  This place is very dear to her heart and I’m grateful to her for entrusting me with something so important,” Holly said rapidly.

“Yeah, you say that like you’ve memorised it.  It’s okay, Holly, we know you hate your job.  You wanted something better and you got stuck with us.  Well, things can  _ be _ better now.  Of course it’s still Bumfuck, but hey, actual bumfucking if you like it, and I get the impression you do.”  She waggled her eyebrows at Holly in the mirror.  “I think it’s so cute how after the shit you’ve just done you still blush.”

“Humph,” said Holly.  She’d never actually used humph in conversation before today, but she felt she was going to get a lot of use out of it talking to XF.  “And another thing,” she burst out, slamming down the brush, “what sort of nickname is Sharky?  It doesn’t make any sense for your gem placement, it sounds nothing like your name or number, it isn’t even a  _ word.” _

“It’s new!  XM from Earth gave it to me ‘cuz of my teeth.  I’m the only one she gave a new name!  A shark is an awesome fangy creature they’ve got there.  I love it, before that everyone just called me Effie or Effbomb.”

“Ridiculous,” Holly muttered, gathering half her hair and beginning to twist it together.  “Obviously they should have called you Cheeky.”

“Holly!”  XF flung her arms round Holly’s shoulders, making her drop her hair.  “Thank you!”

“It’s not a compliment!  You’re atrociously cheeky.”

“And my gem’s in my cheek!” she crowed, rubbing it against Holly’s cheek.

“Yes,  _ obviously.” _

“I love it.  I’m still gonna be Sharky but you can call me Cheeky.  It’ll be our thing.  Hey!  I bit you on the butt _ cheek!   _ This works on so many levels!”  She smacked a kiss where her gemstone had just been rubbing.

“I don’t know why you’re so pleased.”

“Because you made me feel special, giving me a special name.  Just like XM.  Duh.”

“Then please, Cheeky, unhand my neck and let me finish putting my hair up.”

“Yes Ma’am!”  XF let go and dumped herself down to sit cross-legged on the floor at Holly’s side, beaming up at her.

“What are you doing there?” Holly asked, starting a second attempt at her coiffure.

“Watching you.  How your hair works is one of the mysteries of the universe to us.”

“Oh, really,” Holly huffed, but she paused as she gathered the left side.  “Can you see?  My hands may be in the way.”

“Yep.”

“Be a dear and give me a hairpin from that box.”

“This?”  

“That’s right.”  She twisted her bun tight and tucked the pin in to anchor it.  “Another, please.”

“Yes’m.”  

“Thank you.”   _ Be nicer, praise her more. _  “Good girl.”  She glanced sideways at XF — no, she should try to think of her as Cheeky or Sharky if that meant so much to her — and asked, “Did it mean that much to you that the Earth Amethyst gave you a name?”

“Yes!  She’s so cool!  I mean, she had nobody, she was all by herself — we’ve  _ always _ had each other, that’s what makes us strong — and she’s so little and she  _ still _ made it and even after everything when we found each other we just fit together, we  _ got _ each other!  She’s so tough and funny and cute, she’s amazing.”

“Does it not mean anything to you that she’s with the rebels?”  She began the other bun.

“It means more that she’s an Amethyst,” Cheeky said, shrugging.  “Don’t you feel like that about other Agates?”

“It’s not like that for Agates.  We’re supposed to work independently, not to be… all together in a clump.”

“Well, that sucks for you, because clumping’s great.”  Cheeky poked her gently in the knee.  “You can clump up with us, y’know.  It doesn’t matter that you’re not an Amethyst.  We love our Jaspies and Carnie too.”

“Hmm.”  Holly considered herself in the mirror, turning her head from side to side.  Both buns looked level and even; they would last like this almost indefinitely if they weren’t disturbed.  “Do you think you see how they work now?”

“Nope!” said Cheeky cheerfully.  “I have  _ no _ idea why they’re so cone-y.  I mean, the closest I get to doing my hair is tying it in a big knot to keep it out of my way.”

“Let me see.”  Holly turned on her stool and tried combing her fingers through XF — no, Cheeky’s hair to feel the texture and weight of it.  “It’s not as well-behaved as mine but I could do something with it.  Do you want me to try?”

“Go for it!”  Cheeky scooted herself around with her back to Holly.  “What do you wanna do?”

“Nothing complicated.  I’m going to gather the sides together at the back and make a soft bun, and let the rest hang free.  Keep still, I can’t do this if you wriggle.”

“But I want to see it.”

“You can see it when it’s done. You can’t see the back of your own  _ head _ anyway.”

“We’re like humans!  They love sitting round doing each other’s hair.”

“Oh please, I am  _ nothing _ like a human.  You do say absurd things.”  Holly tucked in a hairpin; it took a lot more of them to secure Cheeky’s hair than her own.  It was thick and puffy and tried to push the pins back out, but she was getting it under control.  “It figures that your hair would be this unruly.  There, you’re done.  Look in the mirror.”

“Ooh, stylish,” said Cheeky, getting up and turning her head from side to side to admire her new look.  “I don’t know how long it’ll last, but it looks good.  And so does yours.”  She ran one finger down the centre part of Holly’s hair to the tip of her gemstone and traced around its rim.  Holly hung her head forward, catching her breath, her mouth dropping open a little.  “Wow.  That really turns you on, doesn’t it?  I thought it was just Jay who could get you to go all weird, but it looks like anyone can if they touch your buttons right.”

“It’s not — I mean —”

“Not what, hon?”  She kept tracing the faceted teardrop shape, sliding down from the point to sweep under the bottom, back up to the point, then back down again the way she had come.  Her blunt fingers were a little calloused, they snagged at Holly’s hair, but she kept her touch light.

“It’s not fair you can do that.”

“It’s not, is it?”  Still tracing, a little grin growing at the corner of Cheeky’s mouth.  “You’re really sensitive.  I like when people touch my gem but it doesn’t make me go all shivery like you.”

“Nnghh,” Holly said faintly, clutching the towel together between her breasts.

“You like that?”

“Hhhh.”

“What’s it doin’ to ya?”  Cheeky leaned over Holly’s shoulder, trying to see her face.  “I’m guessing… hmm… nipples all hard and tingly, pussy getting wet… when I’m horny my asshole gets all twitchy, how about you?”

Holly gave a sudden choking laugh.  “What a question!”

“You like it, right?  Feels good?”

“Mmmhh.”

“Take this off.”  Cheeky pulled the towel down from behind with a quick, brisk tug.  “Get up.  Bend over the table.  You keep your eyes on that mirror.”  She laid her left hand on the back of Holly’s neck, her thumb keeping up the trace around her gemstone, and slipped her right between her thighs from behind, stroking her lips in a steady circling motion.  “Damn, Holly, you’re ready to drip.  Have you always been like this?”

Holly leant on her forearms, trying to avoid catching her own eye in the glass.  “You’re making it worse.”

“You should’ve  _ said _ something.  Imagine how good we could’ve been giving it to you this whole time.  All that time you spent alone in here, seriously, were you playing with yourself?”

“Oh shut up.”

“Tell the truth or I just won’t fuck you.  Were ya?  Hmm?”  She dipped two fingers just inside the well of Holly’s pussy and pumped them lightly.  The juicy wet dabbling sound was loud and clear; it made Holly’s cheeks burn and she felt a  _ pull _ in her cunt that was overwhelming.  

“A lot of the time yes,” she admitted in a breathless rush.  “Please, Cheeky?”

“You know what?  Turn over.  Good.”  She turned Holly round and boosted her up to sit on the dressing table with a brisk shove.  “Oh, look at you.”  Her gaze and her hands ran down over Holly’s body, massaging her breasts, stroking over the soft bulges and folds of her tummy, pushing her parted thighs further apart so her pussy was spread and and tilted upward.  Abruptly she dropped to her knees and pressed a kiss on Holly’s labia.  “Fuck, I could eat you up.”

“Don’t bite,” Holly gasped.

“Holly.  I’ve never bitten a pussy in my life.  Chill.”  She drew her tongue up between Holly’s lips to flick lightly against her clitoris.  Cheeky licked delicately, up and down the thick folds, driving her to whimpering desperation before plunging in to slurp avidly, sucking at her swollen lips and flicking her stiff tongue-tip rapidly against the taut shaft of her clitoris.  There was absolutely  _ no  _ need to snuffle and smack like that, it was crude and gross and it did  _ not  _ heighten the excitement Holly felt until she was trembling at the very edge of an orgasm that Cheeky wouldn’t let her  _ quite _ get to.  She had knocked everything off the dressing table squirming around, there were hairpins everywhere, she’d already ruined what she’d managed to do with Cheeky’s hair clutching at her head.  Finally Cheeky moved to firmly massage her clitoris, her tongue hot and surging, and Holly’s hips jumped and bucked and the mirror behind her shoulders clattered wildly against the wall as she came helplessly.  

Then while she was still breathless and giddy Cheeky was rising up, her clothes disappearing, grabbing her hips and stuffing her cock in and sloppily kissing her so that all she could taste or smell was her own cunt.  The table was thumping against the wall now, and it could break into splinters as far as Holly was concerned as long as it held together long  _ enough _ for them to finish.  She could hear herself moaning and squealing and Cheeky growling and grunting and the pair of them moving together with an enthusiasm that approached violence.  A huge burst of pleasure and shuddering relief went off in the pit of her belly and she wailed as Cheeky thrust onward into her own orgasm.  She jolted to a stop, gasping, her broad face ecstatic.  

“Oh, fuck,” Cheeky moaned.

“Yes,” Holly breathed.

“Fucking incredible.”  She drew in her breath between her teeth in a long wet hiss.  “We cracked your mirror.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t crack my gem ramming me like that.”

“Oh, don’t even joke about it.  I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No.  No.  Oh, you gorgeous animal, just look what you’ve reduced me to.”

“This kind of thing is why we want to take pictures,” Cheeky said, giggling.  “Who wouldn’t want a little memento of wrecking you like this?”

“What, some sort of trophy wall where you compete to display how much of a mess you got me into?”  Holly wrinkled her nose.

“Uh, would you be into that?”

“No!  Of course not.  What are you  _ thinking?   _ Honestly.”

“Yeah, that’s clearly not something a proper lady like you would do.”  Cheeky tried to smother a laugh but it fizzed out; pressed together the way they were Holly could feel it through her body, and funnily enough Cheeky’s belly resting on hers and jiggling a little when she laughed felt even more intimate than her cock lying deep inside her.  She tried to look away, but Cheeky was angling her head around to catch her eye, and grinning hopefully and waggling her eyebrows, and although it was very unwillingly at first she began to laugh too, giggling weakly as their foreheads rocked together.

“Aw… I’d better stop Holly-hogging and get you cleaned up for the morning meeting,” Cheeky sighed, and kissed her again.  “So worth it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm using a mixture of canon Amethyst names (and nicknames for them) and ones I come up with myself, obviously; XF's MVP role in this chapter is because she's the favourite of [molded-from-clay](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com) who draws absolutely top-notch Hollies. Anyway, I hope you found something to enjoy; I'm not sure when there'll be more of this because I need to pay attention to other things for a while, but I think there will be.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should offer a disclaimer that this chapter has some _background_ and _character development_ which I swear to heck I didn't intend when I wrote a Holly/Famethyst gangbang. But it has happened because I wanted to flesh out a little bit what everyone DOES all day (when they're not cavorting nude), and also write Holly completely failing to relate to others other than by boning. Hang in there, I promise there are several really dirty pages at the end.  
>  It should be noted that there is some discussion of keeping and breeding the humans that is frankly dehumanising, and if it creeps you out, well, it's meant to be creepy that even the nice characters have only this frame of reference, but I hope it is not a bad experience.

Holly was fully dressed again and looked respectable, even if she was still wet under the arms, under her breasts and down the middle of her back; towelling off hadn’t stopped her sweating.  There was an almost syrupy wetness between her legs, sliding between the fabric of her pants and her skin, and she was acutely conscious of it with every step.  She was walking arm in arm with Cheeky, who clearly thought it was fabulously funny to be walking her around in this courtly sort of way, and they were going to the morning meeting in the large wardroom.  It was later than the morning briefings Holly had called when she was running things and she wasn’t at all sure if they were going to conduct it the way she had in any respect.  She hadn’t paid that much attention to the details of it in her pique at being surplus to requirements.  

They slipped in quietly because things were already in progress.  No one was standing to attention; no one was in rank and no one was standing on the dais to address them properly.  They were sitting in a rough circle, some on chairs and some lounging on the floor.  Carnelian was standing on a chair and talking to the group.

“So I think we got  _ that _ cleared up and maybe  _ one _ day humans will figure out that just 'cuz emerald fruit tastes great doesn’t mean you should eat all of it as fast as you can and shit yourself for three days straight!  The end.”  She hopped down.

There was a general chorus of “Good” and “Gross!”  Cheeky found a vacant chair and sat down, pulling Holly to sit on her lap with one arm casually slung around her waist.

_ Does that make it look as if I belong to her now?  I probably shouldn’t let that happen, it might lead to jealousy and competition and bickering…  _

On the other hand, it felt  _ nice _ when someone acted sort of  _ proprietorial  _ about her.  On a hypothetical third hand, the thought of competition gave her a slight tickle of interest.  What if they fought over her?  Physically fought?  Slamming into each other and snarling and grappling and biting?  And then the victor, steaming and panting, came to claim her?  She knew perfectly well that wouldn’t be like them, they were far too easy-going, but what an image.  She ran it by herself a few times, trying different casting for the role of victor, and shifted her bottom on Cheeky’s broad thigh, getting a little squeeze of her waist in return.  One of the Jaspers was standing now, reporting in a shy rumble that she’d found what was wrong with the auxiliary waste reprocessor and fixed it.  She got slaps on the back and a few off-colour jokes about human waste, and sat down grinning to herself.  

Holly was perplexed; she wasn’t used to any of them seeming shy, but then she was used to seeing them as a mob.  Perhaps a shy one had escaped her notice all this time, which she supposed was just what a shy one would want to do.  No, she remembered this one from last night, she’d been the second or maybe third she’d gone down on, she hadn’t been shy  _ then.   _ The uncertainty was unsatisfactory.  What was her  _ name _ anyway?  The cut code just wouldn’t come to mind and she hadn’t heard a nickname (it had been hard to hear much with those thighs pressing on her ears).  Why should that bother her?  She’d just have to think about it; it would come to her sooner or later.  She did  _ know _ all their names but it was always easier to remember the ones she’d had to scold more often.

“Okay,” said XL, getting to her feet.  “You know what I’ve been trying in Habitat 3 with getting them to just drop off their laundry in the Clean Clothes Cave when it gets dirty instead of waiting till Little Voice tells them all it’s Clean Clothes Time.  So far, not great.  I’ve got H-305 changing her clothes every three hours because it feels nice, a bunch of them just forget until they actually notice they stink, and the rest remember some days and not others.  I don’t think we should roll it out with the others till I can work out the bugs.  Maybe they just need longer to get used to it.”

“You could give ‘em a reward when they remember,” Carnelian suggested.

“But isn’t the reward having clean comfy clothes?  H-305 sure seems to like it.”

“H-305’s always been weird about dirt.  Like I’m glad she’s happy getting clean stuff whenever she wants it, but I don’t think she’s typical.”

_ What a bizarre conversation.  Why are they even bothering?  If the humans follow a proper laundry routine when Little Voice prompts them, why not just keep using a perfectly functional system designed by a  _ Diamond, _ for heavens’ sake?  I should say something.  Ugh, I can’t say anything, I’m supposed to be pleasant now.  I suppose if they want to waste their time trying to make humans use initiative they can. _

They carried  _ on _ discussing the humans’ laundry and got completely sidetracked telling each other tangentially related stories about allegedly funny or cute things they’d seen the humans do, for so long that Holly couldn’t refrain from rolling her eyes and exhaling rather loudly.

“You bored, babe?” Cheeky asked.

“I can think of better things we could all be doing,” Holly said, and tried swivelling her bottom suggestively.

“Shush a little longer, this is important.”

“No it’s  _ not. _  It’s just gossip!  About humans!  Who cares if K-80 and Z-114 have been play-fighting?  We’re certainly not mating  _ them, _ their lines need to stay apart for at least two more generations.”

“Do you even know which ones K-80 and Z-114  _ are,  _ apart from their genealogy?”

“Who  _ cares?”  _ Holly snapped.

“We do!  Pipe down and stop being such an asshole about it!”

Holly suddenly realised everyone else had gone quiet.  They were  _ staring.   _ Every single person in that room thought she was wrong, stupid and horrible, and it was what  _ they _ thought that counted.  It wasn’t  _ fair. _  Her face was burning and her eyes stung and she felt  _ guilty _ as well as angry and indignant.  She’d ruined everything she’d just managed to establish and it didn’t mean anything and she’d been stupid to think it could.

“Well,” she said coldly, getting up with as much dignity as she could muster, “I can see I’m not wanted here.”  She turned briskly and strode out of the room, her heels clacking authoritatively,  _ no one _ calling for her to come back, and managed to get through the door and around the corner of the corridor before the first contemptible sob burst out of her.  She leant her forehead against the faintly humming pink wall and stuffed her knuckles into her mouth to try to smother the crying but it had already gone too far and she was blubbering hideously.  It went on and on and it hurt her throat and her head and she hated it beyond words.

Someone touched her shoulder and she swung round with a jump and a gasp.  It was only Skinny, and she was dismayed both to see that it  _ was _ only Skinny and to feel how disappointed she was that it wasn’t Cheeky or Jay come to wrap her up in a massive burly hug.  She was already dependent on them just because they had taken care of her after a messy fuck.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Skinny asked.

“Y-you weren’t in the muh-meeting,” Holly said, hating how her voice shook.

“No, I was letting Habitat 4 through to Habitat 6 for some play time.  Why are you so upset?”

“I said something stupid and now everyone hates me.”

“I don’t know what you could say that’d get everyone to hate you just like  _ that.”   _ Skinny reached over and rubbed Holly’s back between the shoulderblades.  “I bet if we go back and you say you’re sorry it’ll be okay.”

“I’m not — I’m not crawling back there and…” The sobbing broke out again.

“Aw man, you’re really strung up.  C’mere.”  Skinny put long wiry arms around her and pulled her close.  She buckled a little when Holly leaned on her but bore up; she was stronger than she looked once she braced herself.  “Uh… there there.  And stuff like that.  Listen, I know it’s not easy trying to join in a group.  More of them than there are of you, you don’t know how anything works — that’s how it was for us dirty Betas getting stuck in with all these big glam Prime Amethysts.”

“This is nuh-nothing like that.”  Holly drew back, trying to wrap her arms around herself.  

“It’s not  _ much _ like that,” Skinny agreed, shrugging.  “And it was a hell of a long time ago.  I’m just trying to relate.  I bet right now you feel really dumb and embarrassed and small, but it’s gonna pass.  Give it five thousand years.”  She tried to catch Holly’s eye with a crooked grin.  “No smile?  I thought that was a good one.  C’moooooon.  Think about all the jerkwad things you’ve said to us, and we didn’t hate you.  You seriously think you finally found the one thing to say  _ so _ bad we’d hate you?  Or are you maybe blowing this up a bit ‘cuz you really  _ want  _ us to like you now and we’re all you’ve got so it’s scary if anything goes wrong?”

Holly sniffed hard.  It was offensive to be  _ analysed _ like that.  Still, it seemed to be offered with goodwill.  

“And you don’t know shit about being friends, which isn’t totally your fault.  We’ll call you a late bloomer.”  Skinny moved round to lean casually against the wall, one leg bent and her thumbs tucked into her waistband, managing to give the impression that she was basking in the sun inside a completely artificially lit corridor.  “C’mon.  What’d you say?”

“I said ‘Who cares?’ about some inane gossip about which humans like each other.”

“Well, we care.”

“I know!”  Holly slumped back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor, her arms wrapped around her thighs and clasped under them.

“If we didn’t have that I think we’d’ve gone loopy from boredom a long time ago.  I always wondered if  _ you _ were going a little loopy from boredom, but I guess you found your own outlets.”  Skinny slid down to crouch beside her, her long arms sticking out gawkily as she propped them on her knees.  “That’s not so awful.  Didn’t make me hate you.  I just think you don’t get it yet.  And you’re kinda snotty about it.”

“Jay ran off to see one of them giving birth rather than stay with me,” Holly muttered.

“She left you alone?”

“No, I had Ch-Sharky,” she admitted.

“If this is P-12, she’s been excited about that for weeks.  We don’t get twins that often.  She’s been so big!  Jay thinks pregnant humans are adorable, she thinks it’s the coolest thing ever how they can make their  _ bodies _ a Kindergarten, she’s so impressed by how strong and brave they have to be to give birth the way they do, she loves babies and seeing how they take care of them.  So I bet it did sting a little bit if she chose something else over you, but it wasn’t just like a casual interest, it was one of her favourite things ever that she’s been looking forward to long before you shook your ass her way.  I don’t know if that helps.”  She gave Holly a gentle nudge with her shoulder.  “You have a good time with Sharky?”

“Yes.”

“She’s wild, isn’t she?” Skinny said slyly.  “I wondered how long it’d take her to get you alone so she could really work you over.”

“I get the impression she hasn’t yet  _ begun _ to work me over.”  The love-bites on her neck and shoulders tingled at the thought.

“You’ve got some fun times ahead of you.”

“No I haven’t, she’s angry with me now.”  The tears threatened again.

“Naw, come on.  I’ll go with you, you’ll say you’re sorry for being rude, if it makes you feel better they can give you a spanking.  It’ll be fine.”

“If it makes  _ me _ feel better!”

“Well, yeah.  In front of everyone, Sharky puts you over her knee, and pulls your pants down, and spanks your bare ass until it glows.  That seems like something you’d be into.  It’s got nudity, public humiliation, the whole bit.”  She looked at Holly’s face and burst out laughing.  “You’re so scandalised!  Don’t worry, Holls, it would be strictly for your benefit.  If you don’t want it neither do we.  A plain ‘sorry about before’’ll do.  They’re cliquey but they’re not mean.”  She sprang to her feet and held out her hand.  “Get up.  It’ll be okay, but not if you just sit here.”

“I must look terrible,” Holly said, wiping her eyes.

“You look fine.  Shoulders squared, mind cleared, back straight, tits out — you can do it.”

Skinny led her by the hand back to the wardroom, where Jay was in the middle of the circle narrating the birth of the twins with great animation.

“It went so fast!  I think that was a little scary for her but it’s gotta be better than when they’re struggling with it for hours.  Oh hey!  Holly!  Look at P-13 and P-14!”  She hurried over, her face alight, and showed them a hand screen displaying a picture of two small, damp human infants lying curled on their mother’s chest.  “I love them.  They’re so little and gross.”

“Congratulations?” said Holly.  They certainly were little and gross, so she supposed it was a good thing Jay found that lovable.

“Aw, cute,” said Skinny.  “Hey everyone, Holly Blue’s got something to say.”

They were all looking at her again, but at least the looks weren’t angry glares.  “I’m sorry about before,” she blurted out, and looked away.

“Oh, okay,” someone said.

“Yeah, no big.”

“Hey Jay, what colour are their eyes?”

“Haven’t seen ‘em yet!  But I think 13 has red hair like P-8 had.”

“That’s so cute!”

“Told you it’d be okay,” Skinny said.  She gave Holly a little pat on the ass and wandered off to talk to Carnelian.  Holly was left by herself feeling stupid all over again from a different direction.  She’d overreacted to what was evidently a minor spat to them.  So now she looked hysterical, at least to Skinny who’d seen the pathetic performance out in the corridor.  Was she going to tell everyone about that or could she be discreet?  Oh  _ no,  _ she was glancing at her while she talked to Carnelian and Carnelian was grinning.   _ You should’ve seen her, Carnie, blubbing out in the hall, her nose was all runny, disgusting.  Ridiculous.   _ And she couldn’t charge out of the room again, it would just look like she was going to be hysterical some more.   _ No,  _ she told herself,  _ I am just going to have to brazen this out.   _

Unwillingly, she looked around for Cheeky, who seemed to have gone elsewhere, and then Jay, who was projecting the picture of the twins onto a photosensitive wall of the room that was encrusted with similar images of babies and children, overlapping generations of Zoo humans.  Holly walked up behind her, trying to feel some pride in them.  They were her work too, and they were robust and healthy and reasonably genetically diverse.  Jay heard her heels and turned to look at her, beaming.  She slung her arm around Holly’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze.  

“Look at ‘em, Holls,” she said.  “Aren’t they great?”

“I can see you’re very proud of them.”  She tried to think of something she could say.  “It’s a pity those two new specimens turned out so badly, they would have provided valuable fresh blood.”

“Yeah, true, the little one would’ve needed a while to grow but we could’ve thrown Ga-Reg right in the pool.”

“I  _ tried,” _ Holly said, pursing her lips, “but he rejected the Choosening and threw everything into disarray.”

“Yeah, it happens,” Jay said philosophically.

“What?  No it doesn’t.”

“It… kind of does,” Jay said.  “I mean, you know there’s always a few that are infertile, that’s just the luck of the draw.”

“Yes, so I leave them out of the pool.”

“Buuuut a lot of them still want the  _ rest _ of Choosening even if they’re not gonna make babies, so we tend to adjust your plans here and there so they’re not left out every time.  That just makes them glum and they don’t thrive, and the non-breeders are a big help with the kids, especially when there’s a new baby and someone’s got to look after the older ones.  So we’ve got to meet their needs too, right?  And then there’s the ones who  _ could _ breed but don’t  _ want  _ to have sex.”

“What are you  _ talking _ about?  It’s what they’re supposed to  _ do.   _ It’s their nature.”

“It’s just a few, but there’s always a few.  So we need to just… tweak around ‘em,” Jay said, miming tweezing something out of one place with her thumb and forefinger and popping it in somewhere else.  “I mean, we really tried early on to do it like you planned, we had Little Voice telling the reluctant ones it’ll be okay, it’s natural, it’s good for you, you’ll like it once you get used to it, but they weren’t having it and in the end we just said fine, we’re not here to make you feel bad, you’re meant to be happy living here so if you’re happier not Choosening, you don’t have to.”

“But that’s absurd.  You’ve endangered our entire breeding programme.”

“Holls, we’ve been doing it like this for thousands of years, it still works.”  Jay held up her hands placatingly.

“Behind my back!”

“You would’ve been mad.”

“I’m mad  _ now!   _ I’m responsible for all  _ this,” _ she sputtered, pointing at the wall of pictures, “and had no idea what was going on!”

“It still  _ works! _  Fertility’s good, birth defects are rare, have you seen  _ anything _ to make you think there’s a problem?”

“N-no, but you could all be lying in your reports so I wouldn’t find out!”

“I wouldn’t lie about whether they’re healthy, and we wouldn’t keep doing things that were messing them up.  Look, your breeding plans are good, they really are, you know your genetic shit but there’s more to it than — than genetic shit!  We don’t throw the plans out.  We just adjust them where we need to, because we know our humans and we can see where things aren’t gonna work, for reasons  _ other _ than inbreeding.”

“Well, then you should have said something!”

“Like you would’ve listened?” Jay scoffed.  “You thought we were useless.”

“I — gah!”  She stamped her feet in frustration.  

“I thought you were finally mellowing out,” Jay said.  “Like I could tell you something and you  _ wouldn’t _ lose your shit.”

“I am not losing my  _ shit,  _ I don’t  _ have _ shit, that is  _ disgusting!” _

Jay gave a startled laugh and clapped her hand over her mouth entirely too late.

“You… don’t mean that sort of shit.”

“Actually, I never thought I’d hear you say shit.”

“Well, shit shit shitty-shit!” Holly cried, throwing her hands in the air, before finally hearing the fascinated silence all around them.  She clapped one hand over her eyes before she had to see them seeing  _ her. _  She wished she could drop through the floor.  Any second now they would all laugh, a wave of raucous laughter battering at her.

It didn’t come.  There were a few muffled sputters but that was all.  She peeked between her fingers to see a lot of flushed faces with twinkling eyes and lips tightly pinched together and Jay making vigorous silent gestures at the crowd implying that if they didn’t shush she would personally… saw their heads off?  It wasn’t very clear but it was definitely violent and focused on the neck.  She realised Holly could see her and froze in mid-gesture.

“This is, uh, this is kind of tough,” Jay said after a moment to get her face into a less fearsome shape, “because I want you to feel better but I still really don’t think we did anything bad.  Because check it out.  How can I say I’m sorry for all that?”  She waved at the wall of pictures.

_ I can’t get angry.  I can’t.  I’ve lost my temper too much already.  There’s no reason for them to keep putting up with me if I’m unpleasant. _  Holly folded her arms tightly.  “I’m sure you’re not,” she said.  

_ “But _ I can respect you getting pissed about it ‘cuz I know it’s because you care about doing this right.  Right?”

“No,” Holly said, and swallowed hard.  It made her feel sick to admit this, but perhaps a display of humility and abasement here would offset the damage she’d done with her anger.  “No, I’m so angry because I feel stupid for never noticing what you were doing.  I knew you didn’t follow the plans exactly but I thought you were just making mistakes or following whims.  I assumed it was stupidity on  _ your _ part.  So I feel very,  _ very _ stupid now.”  She folded her arms tighter and set her teeth, willing herself to keep calm.

“Huh,” said Jay, slowly.  She nodded, the curl on her shoulder bobbing.  “Okay, I can see that.”

“So you can all point and laugh,” Holly said bitterly, “and I’m sure it’ll be very satisfying.”

“Kind of don’t want to since you admitted it,” said Carnelian, shrugging.

“Like I’m  _ amazed _ you admitted it,” said 7XK, “but I’m also impressed because damn, I didn’t think you even  _ knew _ you do that.”

“Do what?” Holly asked sharply.

“Yell at  _ us _ when you’re mad at yourself.”

“Everyone does that,” Holly said dismissively.  She was terribly confused; she’d made that admission in the hope of  _ appeasing _ them, not somehow  _ impressing _ them.  It was like trying to get out of a hole you’d dug for yourself and suddenly finding yourself at the top of a hill.  It didn’t feel as if she could trust it because she had no idea how she’d done it.

“Well, yeah.  You’re admitting you do it too.  You don’t think you’re so  _ perfect  _ any more.”

“Humph,” said Holly.  She knew it was ungracious but at least it wasn’t “Still better than  _ you,” _ which was what she’d wanted to say.

“Go Holly,” said someone at the back.  It was clearly grudging praise, but it  _ was  _ praise.  She wasn’t going to get cheered the way she could fucking, but there were a few murmurs of approbation.  She didn’t know what to do with that.

“Hey,” said Jay, taking hold of her arm.  Holly looked at her hand in surprise.  “I’m going back to see the twins.  I just came up here because I had to tell everyone they were born.  Come back with me and see them.”

“I — why?”

“You never go in the habitats.  You need to see why they’re so great.”

“But — but I  _ never _ go in the habitats.  They won’t know what I am, there’ll be panic.”

“You’re not that scary.  And they’re used to  _ us _ now.  A big blue one isn’t any weirder than a big purple or orange one.  C’mon, Holly-dolly.”  Jay’s face was bright and eager again.  “I want to show you!”

“Yeah, go on!”

“Say hi for me!”

“Ugh, we better get to those scrubbers.”

Jay towed Holly by the wrist out of the wardroom and to the elevator that would take them to the Habitat 2 level.  “P-12 is really cute too,” she said happily, “she makes such a great little mother.  You know you picked the father for the twins, right?  We didn’t need to change anything about that, P-12 and R-6 make a great pair.”

“Good,” Holly said, nonplussed.  “Aren’t you angry with me?”

“Nah, who can stay mad on a day like this?  Plus you stopped yelling on your own.   _ Plus _ you yelled ‘Shit shit shitty-shit,’ I’m  _ never _ forgetting that one,” Jay said, grinning.  “Hey, for the first time ever, you were cute when you were mad.”  She pushed Holly against the elevator wall and kissed her exuberantly.  Holly was just melting into that when the doors opened and Jay pulled away.  “Come on!”

It felt bizarre to go into a habitat she’d only ever viewed on screens.  It was pretty enough in an organic way, of course, with flowers and trees and suchlike; the air felt very moist and soft compared with the rest of the station.  As the containment doors closed behind her and Jay, a female human wandered out of the bushes just ahead, her arms full of yellow flowers.  She turned and stared at them wide-eyed, and Holly fully expected her to bolt.  

“Jay!” she exclaimed.  “Who is this big blue one?”

“Hey, R-7!” Jay said.  “This is Holly Blue Agate.  She’s another Gem.  It’s her job to tell the rest of us what to do.”

“She is your Little Voice?” R-7 asked, looking confused.  “But she is very big like you.”

“Eh, she’s shorter than me without her heels,” said Jay.  “Holly, I want you to meet R-7.  She’s the babies’ father’s sister.  Are those flowers for P-12, sweetie?”

“They are for everyone who is happy about the babies — so they are for everyone!” said R-7, who was wearing one of the flowers tucked into her curly hair.

“Oh, that includes me!” said Jay, and bent to have a flower tucked into her own hair.  She pulled on Holly’s arm.  “Bend over, Holly.”

“Does she not talk because her voice is with the others, to tell them what to do?” R-7 asked Jay.

“I talk,” Holly blurted, bending forward and feeling absurdly as if she was bowing to the little human.  

“Oh!”  R-7 gave her a big smile and stuck a flower into each of her buns.  “Two because your hair is so pretty!”  She turned and scampered off ahead of them.

“See?” Jay said proudly.  “Adorable.  You too, that’s a good look for you.”  She towed Holly along again until they reached a kind of bower of leaves; there were several humans sitting or standing around it, all chattering happily and wearing yellow flowers.  They parted with murmurs of greeting to let Jay pass, and stared at Holly with curiosity but without apparent fear.  Inside the bower was a cushioned bed where the new mother lay surrounded by scattered yellow flowers.  She was sitting up breastfeeding one of the new babies while R-6 knelt beside her, cuddling the other.  A tiny murmur was audible from P-12’s earrings instructing her on how to help the baby to properly latch on.  

Jay ducked her head under the edge of the bower and said in a loud whisper, “Hi sweetie.  Is it okay if I bring a visitor in?”

“Oh!”  P-12 looked up and smiled, although she looked tired.  “Yes, who is it?”

“This is my friend Holly,” Jay said, shuffling in on her knees.  “C’mon in, Holly, there’s room if you stay low.”

“I don’t want to crowd her,” Holly said hastily.  “I’ll just stay here and look in.”  The babies were ridiculously small and fragile-looking and even knowing that it was astronomically unlikely she felt afraid she would somehow manage to kneel right  _ on _ one.  There were curious, friendly humans all around her looking at her and telling her their names and admiring her boots and feeling the fabric of her capelet and two of them had already started trying to reproduce her hairstyle.

“Okay,” said Jay, sounding amused.  “This is P-12, and this is — oh boy, I haven’t learned which is which yet.”

“P-14,” said P-12, patting the back of the baby in her arms.  

“Yeah, P-14 has browner skin, doesn’t he?  They’re both male,” Jay added to Holly, “but not identical.  Aren’t they great?  Isn’t it amazing how they start off like this and grow into this?”  She gestured from the baby to the adults.  

“It’s — completely different from what we do,” Holly said.  Kneeling down had been a mistake, a human had climbed into her lap and was playing peek-a-boo with her capelet, pulling the sides together over her face and then opening them to make faces at the others.  She was just going to have to put up with it.   _ They’re laughing at the little idiot making faces, not at me, _ she told herself, although it was hard to convince herself.  They  _ should _ be a little afraid of her; this was just disrespectful.

“Would you like to hold P-13?” P-12 asked Jay.

“Ohmygosh, can I?  Can — can Holly too?”

“Oh, don’t mind me!” Holly said, alarmed.  “I’m sure too much handling isn’t good for them.”

“Holly can too,” said P-12 blithely as R-6 passed the other baby to Jay.  She held it with her hand cupped under its head and its body laid along the inside of her forearm; the baby waved its arms weakly for a moment as it changed hands before pulling them in against its body.

“Oh, what a good baby, what a little baby, what a baby baby,” Jay crooned foolishly, curling her arm in to her chest.  She shuffled over to Holly on her knees.  “Look, he’s even got eyelashes.  Look at his fingernails!  Isn’t that incredible?  All grown from scratch!  From goo!”  She offered her the baby.  

“Oh no, I couldn’t.”

“Course you could.  Just copy what I do, I’ll help you.”  It was take the baby or let it fall into her lap and roll off on the ground, so despite profound misgivings Holly let Jay put its head in her hand.  “That’s good, keep your wrist steady, their necks are floppy when they’re little.  Don’t you  _ see _ how great he is?”  She had such a big expectant smile.  Clearly she was hoping Holly was going to experience a total conversion and go all besotted, and she might have tried to pretend just so Jay would be pleased with her except for the obvious catch that that would mean she was expected to hold more babies.

“I — I find it endearing how excited  _ you _ are about him, but this just isn’t exciting to me,” Holly admitted.  “He looks like a healthy infant who will be a valuable addition to the population.  That’s — that’s all.”

“Aw,” said Jay, stroking the baby’s wisp of hair with the tip of her forefinger.  “Well, not everyone loves babies, that’s okay, but I figured you should at least see one in person.  I mean, indirectly you  _ made _ this.”  She sighed.  “Well, we better put him back before he pees on you or something.”

Holly looked at her in alarm and bundled the baby back into Jay’s arms as quickly as she could without injuring it.  “Excuse me,” she said, firmly lifting the peek-a-boo human off her lap and depositing her on the grass before standing up in a hurry.  She moved off a little way, feeling more relief the further she got from the happy cluster of humans.  Jay caught up to her after a minute and grabbed her arm cheerfully.

“What’d you think?” she asked.  “Aren’t they swell?”

“Honestly, they make me uncomfortable.  All crowding in like that.  Blecch.”  Holly shook her shoulders a little as they walked away between the trees.

“Yeah, it’s weird when you’re not used to it.  I  _ did _ throw you in at the deep end this time,” Jay said sheepishly.

“Having a bunch of little humans crowding in around me and having a crowd of strong beautiful Gems touching me are  _ very _ different propositions,” Holly said with feeling.

“Oh, so it’s fuckability that makes the difference?”

“Well, you’re all so splendidly fuckable, I can’t be expected to ignore it.”

“You sure managed to for a long time.”

“Well, the more fool me.  I’d like to make up for lost time if I can,” she said hopefully.

“How quick do you think you can catch up on five thousand years of missed fucking?” Jay asked, smiling as she backed Holly up towards a tree.  

“I don’t know, it’s an unprecedented challenge.”  The rough bark bumped against her shoulders and she caught her breath as Jay kissed her, holding her hips and pushing one knee between hers.  Her thigh nudged Holly’s mound and she pressed up to it, although she had doubts about doing this with a possible goggling human audience.  Hopefully they were all too interested in their new babies to be curious about Gems canoodling.

Jay drew back, trapping Holly’s lower lip between her teeth and nibbling for a moment before letting go.  “It’s so easy to get you going,” she murmured, “I love that.”

“It’s a little embarrassing.”

“It’s great.  Don’t change.  Well, don’t change  _ that.” _

“C-can you advise me?”

“Advise you?”  She rocked gently against Holly, moving their hips together.  

“What do you think is the best way to — to share myself around?  To do something nice for everyone today?  I was wondering about going round to everyone where they’re working, but would that be a treat or a nuisance?”  She’d been sure she’d get a positive reaction to grinding her bottom in Sharky’s lap during the meeting and it had just been met with impatience.  It would be mortifying to get that sort of reaction again.

“Well, are we talking just going around telling everyone ‘you’re doing a good job, keep it up,’ which you could totally do and everyone would appreciate it, or going around telling everyone ‘you’re doing a good job, keep it up and by the way would you like to take a break for me to go down on you?’”

“Definitely more like the second one.  Would that be good for morale?”

Jay giggled.  “Yeah.  Good for your morale too, I bet.  You love the attention, don’t you?”

“Y-yes.”  It was getting harder to speak clearly when she was this aroused, rubbing herself against Jay’s thick thigh and feeling herself pinned against the tree.  “I was… oh, I was talking to Sharky about… about what I could wear.  I thought just the cape and the boots, mmm?  She approved.”

“Oh Holly, you’re really finding a new calling, aren’t you?  Wanna be everyone’s fucktoy?”

“Yes please,” Holly whimpered.

 

Bee and Peek were just closing the covers on the backup water filtration system when they heard Holly’s voice.

“Knock knock.  Am I interrupting you?”  She put her head around the corner from the corridor just as they both looked up in surprise.  Holly coming along to check on what you were doing and probably tell you you were doing it wrong or inefficiently or with poor posture, that was familiar.  Holly coming along and  _ showing a modicum of consideration for the fact that you might be concentrating on something,  _ that was all new.

“We were just finishing up,” Peek said.  “Do you… want to check our work?”  Holly didn’t know a damn thing about the filter systems but that had never stopped her inspecting and finding fault before.  Peek wasn’t at all sure whether she could assume that her new obliging attitude about things like blowjobs extended to her whole managerial approach.  Her behaviour in the wardroom earlier had made it clear she still had a hasty temper, and/or was a bit of a drama queen.

“No need,” said Holly.  “I’m sure you know what you’re doing.  But may I come in?”  Bee, wiping her hands on a towel, caught Peek’s eye and raised her eyebrows.  Holly looked nervous but also sort of... perky.  Peek mentally rolled the dice and nodded slightly; it was all right by her.

“Yes?” said Bee.  Holly came in and Peek saw Bee’s already raised eyebrows fly up and disappear under her shaggy bangs.  Holly was naked except for her little cape and her tall white boots, and although she stood to attention in her usual way with her hands tucked behind her back, she was visibly a little fidgety as if she  _ really _ wanted them to like what they saw.  She was also visibly excited; her breasts were mostly covered by the cape but her nipples were peaking out the fabric, and with nipples as large as Holly’s there was no mistaking it.  The expression on her blushing face was priceless, she was so nervous and eager and straining so hard to keep some kind of composure.

Bee gave a low, admiring whistle.

“Same,” said Peek, with feeling.  “What’s with the new uniform, Holly?”

Holly’s face just bloomed; she looked stoked, and if Peek wasn’t mistaken she quivered a little with relief.  “You could say I have a new job,” she said.  “Shall we call it morale officer?”

“You can call it whatever you want if you’re going to dress like that,” Bee said, grinning.

“Well, I — I thought it behooved me to take more care of you and to let you know that your efforts are appreciated.  I’m sure cleaning and maintaining the water filters isn’t a pleasant job but it’s essential for the health of our charges.  So — well done, both of you.  Ah — thank you.”  She said “thank you” as if it were a phrase from a foreign language she’d learned but never had an opportunity to use before and she was proud of herself for remembering it.  It made Peek want to laugh but the last thing she wanted to do was discourage Holly from even a rudimentary attempt to be nice.  She couldn’t wait to tell Vee about this.  With her weird ambivalent Holly crush she’d be kicking herself that she’d missed it.

“You’re welcome,” she said.

“Always good to feel appreciated,” said Bee, glancing at Peek again like “Can you believe this?”

_ “Well,”  _ said Holly, and now she turned a little coy, tipping her head to one side, “as you might guess from the way I’m, ahaha,  _ dressed,  _ I’d like to  _ show _ you my appreciation.  If there was any little thing you might enjoy?”

Bee threw the towel to Peek, who almost missed the catch.  “Clean yourself up, Peek,” she said, “you can’t touch a fancy Gem like Holly with those grubby hands.”  She moved over to Holly with a slight swagger; Bee was a little short for a Jasper, although she said she made up for it in breadth, and had a habit of moving in a way that made her appear that bit more imposing than she otherwise might.  She stopped when her face was just a few inches from Holly’s, her gaze flicking from Holly’s eyes down to her mouth, which was beginning to tremble.  Bee leaned in closer, breathing on Holly’s lips, teasing her with her closeness; Holly was almost cross-eyed trying to focus on Bee’s mouth.  Bee dived in suddenly and kissed her deeply; Peek could see her jaw working as her tongue moved and she heard Holly  _ squeak _ and then moan.  She’d never felt jealous that she could remember but there were times when she felt a touch of envy.  

“Let’s see,” said Bee.  With a deliberate, precise movement of her hand she flipped back the left and then the right flap of Holly’s little cape, exposing her breasts.  Bee cupped them, circling the midnight-blue nipples with her thumbs, and Holly breathed in shakily.  She was standing in place but moving her legs restlessly, pressing and rubbing her soft thighs together.  She moaned again as Bee bent her head to suck one nipple.  She moved from one to the other, sucking more deeply as she went, beginning to draw her head back so that her mouth lifted and pulled Holly’s heavy breasts.

“Oh,  _ dear _ Bee,” Holly said faintly.  “Do you like them?”

“Mmm.”  Bee lifted her head, although she continued to play with Holly’s swollen nipples, rolling them between her fingers and thumbs.  “Okay, there’s something I’d like but I don’t know if you’ve done it before.  I’ll talk you through it to start and you tell me if you’ve got the idea.”

Holly nodded eagerly and let Bee lead her over to the swivel chair by the control panel for the filter system.  Bee backed up to the chair, ready to sit, and placed her hands on Holly’s shoulders, pressing down, but after a moment she stopped.  “Wait, are your knees okay now?”

Holly looked blank.  “My — oh!  It’s kind of you to think of it but they’re fine now.  I just positioned myself awkwardly that time.  Don’t worry about it, please.”  She knelt and sat back on her heels, looking up at Bee a little breathlessly.  “Please tell me  _ exactly _ what you want me to do for you.”

“Hot damn,” said Bee, with a flustered half-smile.  “You bet I will.”  She sat down, her clothes phasing away to reveal her sleek striped skin, reaching between her legs to rub her cock.

“Oh, let me,” Holly said, bobbing up.

“Just want to enjoy looking at you for a sec,” Bee said, shaking her head.  “Peek, can you see everything you want?”

“Mmhm,” Peek said, squatting beside them.  “Very nice.”

Bee’s fingers slipped under her cock, probing the slit of her pussy as the shaft thickened and stiffened, and she briefly licked her lips.  “Okay, Holly,” she said, “what I want you to do, get in between my legs, kneel up — that’s good.  Now you hold my cock between your tits, like that, yeah.”  Her tongue flicked between her lips again and Peek had to put her hand over her own mouth for a moment.  Holly looked so earnest about doing this right and she didn’t want to throw her off grinning too big.  

“That’s perfect, Holly, you look so great,” she said, and Holly’s eyes briefly flicked her way with a look of delighted gratitude before her attention returned fully to Bee.  

“Lean in closer.  Good.  You ever done this before?”

Holly shook her head, biting her lower lip.

“You’re doing just fine.  Press them together with your hands.”  Bee grunted softly, angling her hips.  “So now… I can move, and you can move, and I can enjoy feeling your soft pillowy tits hugging my cock, and you can lick the tip.  Try it now.”  Her mouth dropped open a little as Holly’s tongue touched her.  “Uhhh… oh Holly-doll,  _ yes.” _  She sank down in the chair with a look of lazy bliss spreading over her face as she began to rock her hips.  “P-peek, can you spot her?  Give her tips?  I’m gonna… ooh, fuck, this is nice!”  She started to giggle and gave a soft little snort.  Holly looked a little thrown by that.

“Don’t worry about that, she’s a dork,” Peek said fondly.  “You’re making her feel  _ really _ good.”  She stroked the back of Holly’s head, her fingers skimming her gemstone, and  _ did _ grin as Holly shivered and caught her breath.  “Keep it going, slide ‘em up and down, and suck that dick just like I taught you.”

“Hmk,” said Holly, putting her mouth down on the bulbous vermilion tip.  She had to give herself a double chin to do it, but the awkwardness just made it cute.  Her cheeks were almost the colour of her nipples, and her eyes were dark and hazy with desire as she looked up at Bee from under her brows.  

“That’s what I like about you, Holls,” Peek said, “you get so hot and bothered just doing stuff like this.  I like how you’re sliding your tongue out, that’s a good move, think you can take her in a little deeper when she pushes up?  Oh, good  _ girl.   _ Bee, you might want to not slide your ass clear off the chair, you fall on Holly and you’re both gonna regret it.”

“Point,” grunted Bee, grabbing the arms of the chair and hitching herself up a bit.   _ “Oh,  _ Holly-holly-holly, yummy horny Holly, keep it coming, keep it coming…”  Holly was giving little breathless, muffled, squeaky grunts in response, bobbing up and down on her knees, her hips twitching back and forth unconsciously.

“Keep it up, Holly, you’re sucking dick like a champ.”  Peek skimmed her fingertips down Holly’s back to her waist, back up to her nape, down to her tailbone, back up, right down between her buttocks and through to her pussy, stroking through damp tangled curls to brush her lips, slick and puffy.  Holly gave a muffled squeal and lost her rhythm completely trying to grind down on Peek’s fingers.  “It’s okay,” Peek said, pushing her back up, “you concentrate on Bee and I’ll concentrate on you.”  Holly whimpered and leaned forward, her moans rising as Peek twitched her finger from side to side against her clitoris.

“Oh fuck — Holly — Peek — I’m gonna come, I’m gonna come, aa-aah!”  Bee almost did slide out of her chair, her hips twitching, and the lurch tugged her cock from Holly’s mouth as one thick spurt and then another burst out.  She sprayed Holly’s lips and chin before she subsided, her cock sagging between Holly’s breasts, panting heavily.  Holly was panting harder, her mouth hanging open and a ribbon of drool and come running from her lower lip.  She sucked her lip in, scraping it clean with her teeth, and let it out again with a gasp that sounded like “puah.”  Bee reached out a shaking hand and patted her head.  “Good job,” she said, and started to giggle again.

“C’mon, Holly, you’re not done yet,” Peek said, shifting round behind Holly and giving her ass a push.  “Lift up, attagirl, don’t forget Rule Three.”

“The fuck is Rule Three?” asked Bee, pulling herself together enough to get her bottom squarely back in her seat and hitch Holly up with her by her arms.  

“There’s gonna be posters,” Peek said.  

“Need to come,” Holly mumbled, wrapping her arms around Bee’s thick waist and pressing her cheek against her belly.  She rose up on her knees and presented her hindquarters to Peek, who slid her middle and ring fingers together into Holly’s cunt, pressing in as deep as she could, undulating her fingers, drawing back a little and slapping in again.

“Shlick, shlurp,” chuckled Bee, stroking Holly’s hair as she whined sweetly and pushed back on Peek’s hand.  “You got that wet and sloppy sucking me off?   _ Such _ a horny bitch.  You want Peek to get you off by hand or fuck you?”

“Oh, fuck me,” Holly panted.  “Please!”

“Well, you showed us your appreciation, so here’s how much we appreciate  _ your _ appreciation.  Also, Bee got to appreciate your tits, while I  _ really _ appreciate your ass.”  Peek gave her a few more strokes of her fingers just for luck before pulling them free and lining up her cock to take their place.  She hadn’t made it  _ very _ big the other night because she didn’t want to gag Holly the first time she tried giving head, but clearly something thicker and longer would be welcome now and she slid into her with a gasp.  Holly gave an ecstatic groan and screwed her hips around and back.  Peek gripped her large, velvety buttocks with both hands and pumped into her.  

Look at that ass, look at that sleek back, look at the way Holly bucked and arched; she was  _ strong _ and it was all concentrated on getting what she needed.  Her pussy felt meltingly hot and slick, and as she pushed back she kept rhythmically tightening on Peek’s dick, almost sucking her.  She was moaning louder than ever as Peek thrust and Bee caressed her hair, pausing to doodle her fingertip around that sensitive gem.  Peek slid one hand over Holly’s hip and under her soft belly, pressing up and in to increase the friction on the sweet spot, and stopped thinking about anything much except how good this felt.  She was fairly sure Holly came before she did, and might even have been on her second by that time, but either way the climax made her wail and Holly scream.  She pressed in, her buttocks clenching with the last few pulses, until the fierce sensation faded and she rocked back to sit on her ass with her legs sprawling, sucking air.  Holly slumped down again, her bottom resting on her shiny white heels and a drizzle of shiny white come escaping to puddle between them.

“Oh… oh…”  Holly kept trying to say  _ something _ but was far too breathless.  She rested her head in Bee’s lap as Bee petted her head and neck and Peek idly stroked her sweat-slick back.

“How are you doing, Holly?” Bee asked, stroking Holly’s cheek and smiling down on her.

“Mmm,” said Holly, and then they heard a soft, faint little laugh from her that made them both beam.  

“My morale is through the roof now,” Peek said.

“Mine went through the roof, orbited the station and came back in through the floor,” said Bee.  

“Are you planning to do this, like, a _lot?”_ Peek asked, doodling a smiley face on Holly’s back with her fingertip.

“As much as you deserve,” said Holly, shifting to sit a little more comfortably and cautiously feeling her ruffled buns, “so it’s really up to you.”  She looked down at herself.  “Oh dear.  Even with a minimal uniform like this I’ve got it messy.”

“That’s all right, a little spooge on your boobs is just a good conversation starter,” Peek said.

“Yeah, people will ask ‘So how was your day?’ and you’ll be like  _ ‘Well,’” _ said Bee.

“Adds to your air of mysterious allure,” said Peek, but she picked up the towel she’d dropped on the floor, found a clean corner and scooted round to wipe Holly’s chest.  

“Oh, you don’t need to do that, dear.  But it is nice of you.”  To Peek’s surprise, even now, Holly leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.  “Thank you both so much for a really  _ lovely _ fuck.”  She grunted and pushed herself up to one knee and then to her feet, and stood swaying slightly.

“Take it easy,” said Bee, steadying her with a hand on her hip.  “You don’t have to hurry off.  Oh shit, where are my manners?  You want the chair?”

“I’m all right, thank you, and you two were just the first on today’s round.”  She looked down at herself once more.  “No one will really mind, will they?” she said, and giggled.

“Nope.  Uhh… thank you, then,” said Bee.  “That was  _ awesome.” _

“It  _ was _ good, wasn’t it,” said Holly, and allowing for a slight wobble in her gait, she sauntered out.

Peek and Bee looked at each other.  Peek put her hands to the sides of her head and pulled them out with an exaggerated, “POWWWWW.”

“No fucking kidding,” said Bee.  


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter scene in which Carnelian gets to be a saucy minx.

After four visits to different work crews — there had been two working on different parts of the main water filter system alone — Holly was feeling exhilarated but wanted a little rest and a little hush.  It was wonderful to be the centre of such flattering attention.  She had been received with reactions ranging from surprise to confusion but in every case that had become ardent enthusiasm once she’d explained her new role.  She would have to particularly thank Bee for teaching her a new trick; it had been  _ very _ popular.  It would have been embarrassing that she had so much to learn, except that they were all so excited about teaching her, as if it were a  _ treat _ for them.  She’d spent most of the last hour nose down on one pussy after another, immersed in the smell and the taste, enjoying the fact that  _ here _ she knew what she was doing, she’d just been tragically out of practice.

So it was  _ wonderful _ but it was also a little bit overwhelming and she wanted a few minutes alone to clear her head.  She was wondering if she should clean herself up too, but everyone seemed to  _ like _ the mess, not only sloppy seconds but thirds and fourths and fifths.  Perhaps they could all have another bath together later; she imagined being passed from one to another around the rim of the big pool.  She was wandering vaguely in the direction of the bathroom, still trying to decide whether she wanted a shower now and enjoying how completely and  _ totally _ inappropriate it was to be parading through the station in the nude, when she heard an odd sound from under a staircase.  She felt a sudden surge of unfocused alarm; humans where they shouldn’t be, traitor spies, some nasty sneaky little Pearl lurking about?  She stopped short, breathing rapidly, and tried to just listen.

The sound happened again.  It was a sniffle, followed by a small sob.  She sagged with relief; there was no reason for a spy or a Pearl to be sniffling under the stairs so it was probably a human that had somehow got out of its habitat under the new lax system and was confused and upset by unfamiliar surroundings.  She could probably handle this herself, although she hoped she wouldn’t have to actually  _ handle _ it too much.  She phased her clothes back on, because dignity mattered even if it was just a human, went closer to the staircase and crouched down to see into the shadows beneath.  There was a small figure curled up in there.  “No one is going to hurt you,” she said slowly and clearly.  “Come out.”

There was a startled sniff and the figure lifted its head; orange eyes blinked at her.  “Holly?”

“Oh.  C-Carnie.  I beg your pardon, I thought you were a human.”

“Well, that’s a new one,” Carnelian said, and dropped her head again with a shuddery inhalation.

“Are you all right?” Holly asked, off balance.

Carnelian sniffed, tried to say something, and began to weep quietly into her folded arms.

“Oh!  Please don’t cry.”  Why was she  _ crying? _  They never cried, if nothing else they were  _ tough,  _ and Carnelian was one of the most exuberant.  Holly crawled in under the staircase, ducking her head.  Carnelian  _ would _ choose the most inaccessible place.  “What’s the matter?”

“You don’t wanna know,” Carnelian said.

“I — I was crying this morning and your friend Skinny was very kind to me then.  Would you like me to go and find her?”

_ “You _ were crying?” Carnelian asked incredulously.  She lifted her head again and scrubbed at her cheek with the back of her hand.  “You never cry.”

“Didn’t she tell you?  I saw her talking to you just after she brought me back.”

“She said you were upset, that’s all.  You thought we’d had a big fight.”

“Couldn’t you tell from the way I looked?”

Carnelian shook her head.  “I just thought you were being weird.  That was nothing to cry over.”

“Well, what are  _ you _ crying over?”  Holly shuffled closer to kneel beside Carnelian.  That sounded harsh.  “I — I don’t want you to be unhappy.”

“Yeah, I heard you’re the morale officer now,” Carnelian said with a little grin, but it dissolved into a sob.  “I’m just — I’m just sad because J-8 died today.”

“J-8?”  Holly tried to think of anything she knew about that one.  “She was quite old.  She had several offspring — four, I think.  And they all had offspring who are adults and adolescents now.  Very successful.”

“Yeah…” Carnelian said with a tearful smile.  “She was a really good parent.  Some of ‘em need a lot of Little Voice prompts but she just had good instincts, I think.  Great swimmer too.  Still liked swimming right up to the end, she went swimming this morning and d-died during her after-lunch nap.”  She lowered her head again and wept, her hunched shoulders shaking.  

Holly tried patting her back.  “There, there.  Don’t take on so.  She had a long healthy life without any of the troubles or dangers she would have had in the wild.  Think about that.”

“I know, I’ll just, I’ll miss her, I knew her from the day she was born.  It was a tricky delivery and we didn’t know if she’d be okay so I worried about her, you know?  I kept a special eye on her because she was little.  She was little all her life.”

“This is why it doesn’t do to get attached,” Holly said, still patting.  “They don’t live very long in the greater scheme of things and you’ll just be sad when they die.”

“You don’t get it at all,” Carnelian said.  “You can’t take care of ‘em and not get attached.  And when you do that makes everything better because you’re so happy to see  _ them _ happy.  It sucks when they die but I’ll take feeling like this over just tending to ‘em like a machine and not  _ loving  _ them.”

“Is… this the other side of how happy Jay is today?  About the P twins?”

Carnelian sniffed deeply.  “Yeah.  So that means something now, doesn’t it?  I know Jay’s your favourite.”

“I — I’m very  _ fond _ of Jay…”  It felt like an accusation.

“So now  _ you’re _ attached.”  Carnelian’s tears seemed to have stopped, though she still sniffled from time to time.

“Skinny is right, I don’t know  _ shit _ about this,” Holly muttered to herself.  Carnelian heard her and began to laugh weakly.  “I’m sorry, I don’t.  I want you to feel better but I don’t know what to say.  And I must have  _ some _ attachment to you or surely it wouldn’t worry me to see you upset.  What can I do?”

Carnelian sniffed again, wearily, and said, “Fine, I guess you gotta be shown everything.  Sit still.”  She lay down on her side and laid her head on Holly’s lap, facing away from her.  “Now stroke my hair and don’t talk.”

_ She actually wants me to comfort her.  Why me?  Is it just because I’m the only one who’s here?   _ Holly lifted one hand and gingerly stroked Carnelian’s shaggy hair.  For a few minutes that was all she did, wondering what was supposed to come next or whether she was even doing this correctly.

“Ha,” said Carnelian softly.  “You need a Little Voice.”

“What?” Holly asked, startled.

“To tell you things like ‘Don’t tell her not to be sad’ and ‘Give her a hug’ and shit,” Carnelian said.  She rolled onto her back and looked up at Holly.  “You’re not doing a bad job now though.  Keep petting my hair.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.  It does help.”

“Oh, good.”  She tried to keep stroking Carnelian’s hair smoothly, but she was a little thrown off by her looking up at her.  Carnelian’s irises glowed slightly in the dark; they were beautiful but unsettling.

“Do you like me?” Carnelian asked abruptly.  “You don’t, do you.”

“I  _ haven’t _ liked you but that doesn’t mean to say I  _ can’t  _ like you.  I didn’t use to like  _ any _ of you.  Now I think that was my mistake.”   _ Humility, abasement, ugh, just — just master yourself, Holly Blue Agate.   _ “I’m sorry,” she said with some truth.

“Can you name one good thing about me?” Carnelian asked, her lip trembling.

“Yes!” Holly said, alarmed.

“What?”

“You — you’ve been kind to me too.  It was your idea to make rules to protect me.”  She’d had to think fast but that was surely a good strong example.

“That just happened  _ today.” _

“Well, at least I did notice it was you!  Do you know 5-9PQ  _ cited _ one of your rules today?  She did, I noticed that too.”  Actually, she was impressed that she could remember it, given the state she’d been in, but she probably couldn’t expect credit for that from Carnelian just at the moment.  “No one ever paid that much attention to  _ my _ rules.”  She stroked Carnelian’s hair a moment more, thinking.   _ “So _ that goes to show you’re respected by your peers.  There.  Another good thing about you.”  She took a deep breath.  “If I didn’t notice before, that was a failing on my part.  Clearly it was right there to be seen.  I’ll pay more attention from now on.”

“Really?” Carnelian asked, and wiped her nose on her arm.  Holly tried not to wince.  She couldn’t really talk, considering the bodily fluids smeared over her own skin, but she felt those came from nicer places.  

“Yes,” she said.  

“Wouldja… tell me a new one each day for a week?”  She said it with great skepticism.

“Yes,” Holly said, hoping she wouldn’t regret it.  “After all, I’ve found two today alone.  How hard can it be?”

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Carnelian said.

“Then I will try not to let you down.”  She attempted a smile.  

“This is harder than the fucking part of being a morale officer, right?” Carnelian asked, the corner of her mouth quirking.

“Oh, you heard about that too.”

“News like that gets around.”  The quirk grew into a grin.  “You’re really committing to this, aren’tcha?”

“It makes me happy.  Nothing has made me this happy in a very long time.”

“We’re nice to be nice to.”  Carnelian sat up, scooted over and slung her leg over Holly’s knees, sitting astride her lap.  Her eyes were still puffy from crying but they were dry.  “I wanna like you,” she said, “more than because you’re so hot.  I want  _ you _ to be worth liking, not just… great tits and fancy hair.  Get it?”

“I think so,” Holly said.  “I… will try not to let you down.”   _ I don’t know what I have to appeal to you other than that. _

“Hm,” said Carnelian, frowning.  She put her palms to Holly’s cheeks and kissed her mouth.  Holly couldn’t remember having kissed Carnelian before, at least not mutually like this.  It was more affectionate than she’d expected her to be, particularly if she were feeling sad; had she somehow ineptly managed to comfort her a bit after all?

“So which lips taste better,” Carnelian muttered, “mouth or pussy?”

“I — I think mouth tastes more like  _ you.” _

“True that, you were tasting a  _ bunch  _ of people when you ate me out.”  Carnelian kissed her again, sliding the tip of her tongue from side to side on Holly’s lower lip.  “You taste like you’ve been eating pussy again, I have to say.”

“It tastes so nice,” Holly said, a little foolishly.

“Gimme another taste,” Carnelian said, pressing her lips to Holly’s.  They were very soft and full, and she teased Holly with her tongue for some time before slipping it in to stroke hers.  “Little Voice says put your hands on Carnie’s hips,” she breathed, taking hold of them to move them into place.  “Rub nice and slow.”  Her own hands spread over Holly’s breasts, kneading softly, and Holly’s nipples drew tight like little knots.  She began to sink backwards as Carnelian pressed her down but bumped her head on the underside of the staircase.

“Ow-ow-ow,” Holly whimpered, shunting herself forward on her bottom, Carnelian giggling and grabbing her shoulders to steady herself as she rode along.  When there was enough headroom she pushed her again, leaning her small but dense weight on Holly’s shoulders.

“Lie down before you hurt yourself,” she said, grinning.  “This is the problem with you big Gems.  I fit anywhere!”  She tugged Holly’s top out of her waistband and pulled it up over her breasts, gazing down with glowing amber eyes.  “Little Voice says don’t take your clothes off, I’ll do it.”  She sank down to embrace Holly’s breasts, pressing them together and licking them with long, wet strokes.    

“Sh-should I do anything  _ without _ Little Voice telling me?” Holly faltered.

“Mmm… right now just enjoy getting your titties sucked.”  She pulled a nipple into her mouth and sucked deeply; Holly caught her breath at the surging feeling.  It was as if there was a thick warm cord that ran between her nipple and the place low in her belly where the tension built before her deepest orgasms and Carnelian was rhythmically tugging it.  

“Ah… Carnie…”

“Mmm?”

“Oh please…”  She arched up against Carnelian’s hot mouth, her shoulderblades leaving the floor.  “I love — I love that…”

“Mmhmm…”  There was a knowing tone to Carnelian’s voice, a cheerfully mocking “Yeah, you do.”  She pinched the other nipple tight, stretching it up.

“Aah!”  Holly arched higher, struggling against Carnelian’s weight, and Carnelian pushed her down with a thrust of her hips where Holly’s belly was soft.  “Oh please, oh please will you do both sides?”

Carnelian released her breast from her mouth and laughed, leaving a large flushed oval blotch surrounding Holly’s nipple.  “You’re like Skinny, she hates feeling lopsided.  I’m feeling nice so I’ll even you up.”

“Oh yes, oh yes…”  Carnelian spent several minutes working her breasts over with a thoroughness that reduced her to helpless whimpering.  Holly could not keep still, could not stop her legs moving, heels clattering weakly on the floor, thighs pressing together fitfully.  She was so wet she could feel her pussy leaking erratically, little pulses of heat slipping out to soak her pants.  Her breasts tingled and throbbed and the pull on that low inside spot was overwhelming.

At last Carnelian lifted her head and wiped her mouth on her hand before scooting backward on her knees.  “Little Voice says lift your ass,” she said, her rough voice even huskier than usual, and she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of Holly’s pants and hauled them down to the tops of her boots.  Holly struggled weakly, finding it impossible to spread her legs with the fabric bunched around her thighs.  Carnelian tutted at her.  “Little Voice didn’t say spread ‘em.”

“Oh…”  She subsided, wondering what Carnelian wanted.

“That’s good.”  Carnelian pushed her hand between Holly’s thighs, rubbing up and down and kneading at the soft inner curve before bringing it up to her pussy, stroking over the wet curls and coming up to rub lightly and steadily with one finger on either side of the hood of her clitoris, not  _ quite _ close enough.  “You are a  _ mess,” _ she said.  “Aren’t you?”

“Yes.”  There was no point in arguing when the evidence was squishing around Carnelian’s fingers.

“Safe to say you love dick, right?”

“Um, yes.”

“Have you ever made yourself a dick?”

“Oh, no.”

“Little Voice says, it’s time to learn to make a dick.”

“Oh?  I — I’m not sure I can.”

“But you’ve never tried?”

“It doesn’t seem — proper.”

“Holly.  Babes.  You’re lying on the floor with your tits out and your pants down and a runt Beta Gem rubbing your sloppy pussy.  Do you really give a shit what’s proper?”

Holly gave a nervous giggle.  “Maybe not.”

“Truth is you like doing stuff you think is all weird and naughty and gross, you just need… encouragement, right?  So, Little Voice says concentrate on your clit.  Think about how hot and full it feels, all thick and swollen… and picture it growing.  That’s great, Holly, I can feel it.”  Her fingers stroked steadily.  “You’re just gonna grow that clit into a big, beautiful dick.”

Holly’s hips twitched; she felt as if she was trying to do some delicate unfamiliar task without being able to see her hands.  She didn’t know what to do with her actual hands now; she settled for placing them up by her head, palms up and fingers loosely curled.  “Could we go to my room so I can look at it in a mirror?  That might help.”

“Yeah, if you can’t do it like this, but try a little more.  I think you can.  Little Voice says, think about the dicks you like best and how good they feel inside you.  Push that inside feeling out.”

_ “Oh,  _ like —”  There was a brief flicker of light and her body shifted.

“Holy shit, that’s such a cute little chubby!” Carnelian exclaimed.  She sounded delighted, although Holly wasn’t sure she wanted it to be cute.  She gasped as she felt Carnelian’s lips on it and then her tongue working as she sucked.  It  _ felt _ like her clitoris but it was as unfamiliar as the sensations in her anus had been at first.  It was mostly because the anus had turned out so well that she was willing to try this at all.  The strangeness didn’t recede but the pleasure mounted quickly, inside as well as out, and she began to tremble.  Then Carnelian lifted her mouth away, leaving her panting.  “Mmm… that’s nice, but I need something bigger.  C’mon, Holly, you can do it.  Think big.  It’s okay to copy someone you like.  Whoa!  There you go, now we’re talking!”

Holly bit her lip; she was glad to be praised but appallingly embarrassed by the size of what she’d produced.  It seemed so vulgar and overstated, and she  _ knew _ she was being absurd; if she’d seen it on someone else she would have liked the look of it.  Carnelian’s clothes were disappearing and she was moving up, still straddling her but crouched over the new cock; she held Holly’s gaze with a teasing grin.  She sat down, pressing Holly’s cock flat to her belly, and struck a pose, sweeping up her long hair with her hands; with her arms raised her small breasts were lifted, and her hips were tilted and her back arched so that the curve of her tummy was graceful, and just like that she had gone from sort of cute to seductive.  She winked, dropped her hair and slid her hands up Holly’s belly, rocking her hips.  

“That feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Ah,” said Holly, and couldn’t continue.

“Now Little Voice says hold still and let Carnie get comfy.”

“Yes,” Holly breathed.  Carnelian stood up, crouched to lower her bottom, and took her cock in her hand, guiding the head between her lips and sliding it up and down in the slick warmth.

“Here we go,” she murmured, and nudged it into place low in the opening of her pussy, rocking her hips forward with a sigh.  Her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted as she worked it deeper, finding just the angle that would let her slide right down the shaft until it filled her.  For a long moment she was still except for the sharp twitches Holly could feel in the muscles of her strong little cunt.  “Oooh…” she said.  “You know, my girl Skinny is  _ so _ skinny if she gets fucked from the right angle you can see a lil’ bulge moving in her tummy, right above her bush.  When I’m this full I  _ feel _ like I have a bulge.  Oh, I love it.  Don’t move.”  

She planted her hands firmly on Holly’s hipbones and lifted herself up, drawing off Holly’s cock until the tip was in danger of slipping out before she pushed back down with a shudder.  “Oh,  _ yes,” _ she breathed, and lifted her hips again.  She rode slowly and steadily, biting her lip, no longer looking at Holly, focused completely on the place she was working inside.  “Little Voice says don’t you dare come yet, Holly Blue.”

“I — I won’t.”  She wasn’t sure she  _ could,  _ it felt intensely sweet,  _ oh _ the thick soft lips sliding up and down the shaft and the deep slick squeeze of Carnelian’s warm wet cunt, but it was so unfamiliar and  _ weird.   _ Was this how she felt to the others?  Carnelian was moaning, rising and falling, her mouth trembling and little sharp cries bursting out of her unpredictably.

“Fuck me,” she whimpered, shifting onto her knees, “need you to fuck me, I — ah —” 

Hesitantly, Holly pushed up, and realised this was what was missing, this was what she needed, to move against Carnelian, to release herself from trying to hold still.  That was so simple that she felt a little stupid.  She followed Carnelian’s stroke and saw her react, felt her tense; she reached for her hips and Carnelian pushed her hands to rub her thighs, grunting softly.  Holly hitched up her knees and braced her heels as well as she could and pumped into the soft hot wet.

“That’s it, that’s it,” Carnelian panted, moving faster, her breasts and tummy bouncing, her sweating thighs softly clapping against Holly’s hips.  “Aah!  Oh Holly,  _ Holly!” _  Her pace quickened again, growing frantic, carrying Holly with her, and her eyes rolled up briefly as she quivered, hips twitching, a look of dazed joy growing on her face until her head dropped and she grew still, leaning on her arms.  Holly couldn’t stop, bucking inside her, crying out as she peaked, trembling as she subsided.  She lay still again, breathing hard, gradually becoming aware that she was still lying on a hard bare floor in the shadows.  

Carnelian laughed softly.  “Okay, that was amazing,” she said, her voice a little wobbly.  “You fucked me so good.  How’d it feel?”

“It… felt  _ good,  _ but…”

“But…”

“Confusing.  It — it doesn’t altogether feel like  _ me.   _ Even though it is me.”

“Yeah, it can feel like that at first.  Or sometimes it never really feels like  _ you,  _ it’s more like… something you can put on?”  Carnelian eased herself down to lie on Holly’s belly, resting her chin between her breasts.  “Thanks for putting it on for me.”  

“So it’s not just me?”

“Not just you?”

“Not just me who doesn’t feel completely comfortable with shapeshifting a phallus?”

“Phallus?  You’re a trip, Holly.  Nah, it’s not just you.”

“I’ve  _ watched _ you all changing around but didn’t know how you felt about it.  Do you all feel the same way?”

Carnelian rolled her head onto her cheek, frowning thoughtfully.  “Nah.  I mean, most of us just change things around for whatever.  Some people like a dick, some people like a pussy, some people like a combo.  I prefer having a pussy, it just feels like  _ me. _  Maybe you’re the same way.  But I’ll put on a cock sometimes, it’s not  _ un _ comfortable.  You know, if someone needs her world rocked  _ extra _ hard.”  She giggled.

“Will anyone mind if I’d rather do that?  They won’t think I’m… shirking?  Selfish?”

“What?  No, c’mon, it’s meant to be for  _ fun. _  You get that, don’t you?  No one  _ wants _ you to do anything you don’t like.  Seriously, Holly, if you’re trying something out and you don’t like it, you can stop any time.  We don’t want you to feel bad and we would feel  _ so _ gross if we found out we’d been doing something you were just putting up with.  Jay  _ told _ you.”  Carnelian looked worried.  “This just now, were you just putting up with it to make me happy?  I was counting on you  _ saying _ something if you weren’t into it.”

“No, no, I wanted to see what it would be like.  I — I trusted you.  I did, I trusted you.”

“Eesh, you sound so surprised.”  Carnelian rolled her eyes.  “But good.  I mean, we’ve all been fucking forever and we know each other inside and out and nobody ever has a problem saying ‘nah I don’t feel like it today.’  We just gotta remember to be extra careful with you till you’re all broke in like us.”

“But not  _ so _ careful that I feel as if you think I’m fragile and weak.  I hate that.  Wouldn’t you?  I  _ like _ some rough handling.  I  _ like _ being taken to my limits.  I — I —”

“I know, baby, I know.  I’m just sayin’.”

“I only just discovered how much I  _ do _ like it so the last thing I want is for you to get squeamish!”

“Holly.  Trust me.   _ Nobody _ here is squeamish,” Carnelian said with a little snort of laughter.  “And no one thinks you’re fragile or weak.”

“Well… good.”

“I wouldn’t ride you so hard if I thought that.”

“You  _ did _ ride me  _ quite _ hard.  When you rode my face  _ and _ when you rode, um, now.”

“Yeah,” said Carnelian, her smile growing.  “And that was fun, right?  I loved when you grabbed my ass.”

“I loved feeling smothered by your messy little pussy.  At the time I was feeling so  _ shocked _ at you and how brazen you were, just  _ shameless.” _

“What’s to be ashamed of?  I love fucking and so do you.”

“I thought… you do know when I say this that I know now I was mistaken, don’t you?  I had always thought you should be ashamed of  _ yourself.” _

“Ohhhh, yeah, that.”  Carnelian rolled her eyes.  “‘Cuz a little chunky short-stack like me shouldn’t ever feel sexy.”

“But you are!”

“Like duh, Holly, I know that.”  Carnelian lifted herself up, letting Holly’s cock slip out and fall between her thighs.  “And I know you love this.”  She parted her labia with her fingers, showing her slick inner folds.  “Oh hey.  Looks like you didn’t come.”

“No, I did, it was lovely.”

“Well, you didn’t  _ spunk _ come.  Not that you have to, we just like it ‘cuz we’re gross.  I love feeling it leaking out of me after, squish squish.”

“So do I,” Holly mumbled.  “I think I didn’t form it properly, I was just thinking of the shape, not ejaculating.”

“Then you’ll get it next time, it’s all good.”

“May I put it away now?”

“Course you can.”

“Well, Little Voice didn’t say,” Holly pointed out, hoping she was doing the joke properly, hoping it was  _ meant _ to be a joke between them.  To her relief, Carnelian grinned at her.  

“Little Voice says put your dick away.”  After that she snuggled down again with her head between Holly’s breasts, looking very comfortable, which was all very well for her; Holly was beginning to feel a bit cold on the floor now the heat of passion was wearing off.  Still, she put her arms around Carnelian and lay still for a while, feeling her gently breathe.

“Do you still feel sad?” she asked eventually.  “Or have I helped?”

“Still gonna be a bit sad for a while, but this was a nice distraction.  You’re a pretty decent morale officer, Holls.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May I just say that some _amazing_ fanart has been coming out for this story? I'm so stoked. You can find a lot of it in [my Holly Blue Agate tag.](http://airyairyquiteinappropriate.tumblr.com/tagged/holly%20blue%20agate)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this happened again! Sorry it was such a long time coming, but I'm gradually clearing a period of writer's block. My two MVPs return in this chapter. They're gonna get special treatment, I have to admit.

After their tryst under the stairs, Carnelian had decided to tag along with Holly to her next stop.  

“Say, you had all your clothes on when you came under here,” she said, watching Holly crawl out with some appreciation.   _ “I _ heard you were going around naked.  Was someone pulling my leg?”

“No, no, I was,” Holly said, phasing away her rumpled top and pants as she got up and adjusting her capelet to hang nicely over her breasts.  “Just like this.”

“Why’d you put ‘em back on?”

“I told you, I thought you were a lost human.”

“So humans don’t get the titty and bush show?” Carnelian asked, looking up at the underside of Holly’s breasts with a broad smile.  “Being short really pays off at a time like this.”

“Why ever would I want to show humans this?  I’d only confuse them; they need to save  _ that _ for Choosening,” Holly said airily.  

“Youuuu know they don’t only fuck for Choosening, right?”

“Yes, regrettably, that’s why we keep the ones we don’t want to breed at any given time on contraceptives.”

“Well, there’s quite a lot of ‘em doing the kind of fucking where breeding isn’t even an issue,  _ if _ you know what I mean.”

“Carnie,  _ dear,  _ I don’t need to know the details.  It goes beyond the scope of my job.”  Holly stiffened as a startling thought occurred to her.  “Do you just mean same-sex coupling with other humans or do you mean trying to mate with  _ Gems?” _

“Oh no no no, the first one.  No, some of ‘em have crushes on us, we’ve had offers, but we all agreed we’d feel icky about it when we’re responsible for them like we are.”

“Well, thank goodness for that.  Very sensible of you,” Holly said quickly.  

“They're so cute when they try to hit on you though,” Carnelian said, chuckling, “sidling up to you offering you flowers and wanting to braid your hair.”

“One of them put flowers in  _ my _ hair earlier,” Holly said, mildly shocked.  “The little hussy.  No, I’m sure that was innocent, she said they were for everyone.”

“Aw, Holly, flowers!  What happened to ‘em?”

“They fell out when Jay had me up against a tree,” Holly said with some satisfaction.  “Come to think of it, that was a surprisingly strong tree.”

“You two did it in the  _ habitat?” _  Carnelian whistled.  

“Why, is that not done?”

“It's fine if you don't mind an audience.  What am I saying?  You  _ love _ an audience.”

“Not of humans!  I don't  _ think _ any were nearby.  They were all milling around where the babies were.”  It had felt so good to do it in that warm, soft air with the smell of the flowers wafting around them; there had been little flowers in the branches of the tree that pattered down around them as Jay thrust into her, breathing against her cheek that Holly was the most desperate, needy fuck she'd ever had, and she was gonna take care of  _ that. _  Afterwards, as their breathing calmed, she’d brushed and flicked away the tiny flowers from Holly’s hair and shoulders, and it had bordered on romantic, allowing for minor realities like a knot on the tree trunk poking her right buttock and the warm trickle of come running down her thigh.

“Homeworld to Holly,” said Carnelian, poking her in the knee.  “You tranced out.”

“Oh?  Oh.”  Holly attempted a light laugh.  “Hmm.  Just remembering something nice.  Shall we go on?  I think there’s one last group working on the air scrubbers one level down.  We might brighten their day.  If word is spreading they may even be looking forward to a visit.  People looking forward to seeing me is still enough of a novelty to feel like a treat,” she admitted.

She felt self-conscious in a ticklish way walking along like this with Carnelian beside her.  She had phased her own clothes back on, saying she didn’t want to steal Holly’s thunder, and it was already renewing Holly’s excitement to be naked in clothed company.  She’d found today that she loved that moment of entering a room where everyone was dressed and working, and everyone’s eyes turned to her, and her cheeks flushed and her lips tingled, her nipples tightened, that wonderful hot dark liquid sensation of pleasurable shame bloomed deep and low in her belly and started to descend into her pussy.  She paused just a moment outside the door of the air scrubber room, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply in anticipation.   _ I want everyone to see me, I want them to stare, I want them to leer at me and make crude comments and ooh…  _

She licked her lips briefly and opened the door and her eyes together.  Inside half a dozen strapping Amethysts, plus Skinny, were taking a break from reassembling the big air purification module that stood open, its filters pulled out for cleaning.  They were lounging against the railings of the air shaft in the middle of the room or crouching on the floor, laughing raucously at something 8XL had just said.  The laughter dropped away as one head and then another turned her way, eyes widened, mouths grinned and whoops and whistles broke out.

“Oh, hot damn!  Here’s Holly!”   _ There _ was the sensation, and she couldn’t have held back her flustered smile if she’d tried.

“Here’s Carnie too, like anyone cares,” Carnelian said, dodging around Holly’s legs.  

“I care a little,” said Skinny, who was sitting on an upturned box.  Carnelian ran over and jumped into her lap.

“Guess who just fucked Holly?” she asked gleefully.

“Uh, everyone, I’m gonna guess everyone.  But you were lucky last?”

“Yeeup!  Caught her alone and got a private sesh, no less.”

“Nice.”

Four of the Amethysts had got to their feet and were approaching Holly, circling her slowly, looking her up and down with eager eyes, their posture very gently swaggering, powerful arms hanging easy at their sides.  One reached out to stroke her shoulder, brushing through the heavy satin of her capelet; another large hand skimmed fingertips across the curve of her tummy.  XL touched her chin, forefinger crooked underneath and large thumb pressing on her lower lip, and Holly’s mouth opened reflexively.  She stood still, trying at least out of habit not to lose all her composure, quivering faintly.  

“Hi, Holly Boo,” XL said.  “We’ve been hearing stories about  _ you.” _

“Nothing that would have surprised you, I’m sure.”  She closed her eyes briefly as someone touched her hip, stroking down and under the curve of her buttock.

“Morale officer Holly,” said a voice behind her, “raising spirits and temperatures all over the Zoo.”  Was that Vee?

“Are  _ we _ lucky last?” XL asked, still softly playing with Holly’s lip.

“Today, but…”  Someone touched her back, stroking up and down at the small of it.  Why should she be so sensitive there?  Why should a large, warm hand pressing just above her bottom send an electric shiver right up to the nape of her neck and a throb straight  _ through _ her body into her belly?  And then someone licked her gemstone, which was a dirty trick, forcing her to moan aloud.  Had Cheeky told people to do that to her or were they getting the idea on their own?  They were pressing in around her, brushing against her, thighs, breasts, palms, that wicked tongue tracing around her gem while XL leaned in to lick her throat from collarbone to chin and pushed another breathless moan out of her.  Someone pushed a toe between her feet, nudging her heels apart, guiding her to slide her feet further apart, and a hand slipped between her legs, no, two, from in front and behind, and XL was licking her neck in long hot strokes that kept her head tipped back so she couldn’t see.

“Beautiful Holly,” someone murmured, hands covering her breasts and fingertips massaging her nipples.

“Juicy Holly.”

_ “Thirsty _ Holly.”

“Tasty Holly.”

“She’s so fucking wet.”  Fingers between her lips, sliding without resistance.

“That’s not news.”

They closed in around her and Holly whimpered in delight.

 

Vee saw Holly back to her room, giving her a piggyback ride since her legs were wobbly.  Holly rested her cheek on her shoulder contentedly and chose not to think about the wet spot she was leaving on the back of Vee’s uniform.

“You okay?” Vee asked, hitching her a little higher on her back.  “If you ever start to feel like we’re overdoin’ you…”

“No such thing,” Holly said, “but after I’ve tidied myself up a little I may indulge in a small nap.”  She could already feel how comfortable it would be to wrap herself up in that cosy shawl and lie on her couch and sink into warm restful darkness.  Her conversion to messy hedonism might be complete.  

“That’s the stuff.  Hey, I can come by after work and wake you up in time for tonight’s party.”

“Do you still have a lot to do?”

“Eh, we were about half done when you came round.  We’ll get there.”

“I suppose I made you take a longer break than you were planning.”  She rubbed her cheek against Vee’s shoulder.  “Sorry.”

“Oh yeah.  We’re really steamed about that.  I so resent how you ate me out when I could’ve been working.”

Holly chuckled.

“I’m not used to that.  You laughing.  It’s a nice sound.”

“I haven’t felt like it for a long time.”

“Or used to you apologising, which is a nice sound too.”  She hitched Holly up again with a little grunt.

Holly wasn’t sure she liked that.  Was she expected to just apologise ad infinitum to make them happy?  And it had reminded her that she’d offended Cheeky — Sharky or Cheeky, she hadn’t settled the two names in her head yet —  this morning, and hadn’t had an opportunity to apologise yet.  The longer she left it the worse it would probably be.  Sharky was probably wondering why she hadn’t come to find her, thinking that if she didn’t she must not care, was still just the asshole Sharky had accused her of being, still unfairly in Holly’s opinion.  It was spoiling her mood already.

“You know what you could do?” Vee asked.

“Hmm?  What?”

“Just when you’re ready, it’s no hurry.  We could use some new Choosening picks.  That’s always been your job and we didn’t really wanna take it over, but you weren’t doing much for a while.”

“Oh.”  She’d somehow thought it would be a way to make amends.  Just getting back to doing the part of her job that they regarded as important would go some way to secure their trust, she supposed.  She would have to ask Jay some questions about their adjustments for infertiles opting in and the other group unaccountably opting out so she could adapt her programme to fit.  “Yes, I can do that.”

“Great!  Okay, this is you.  You gonna turn into a puddle in the floor if I let you down?”

“No, I think not.”  Holly slipped down and made sure her feet were steady.  “Thank you, dear Vee.”

“Ah, between the laughing and the sorry and the dear Vee you’re really softening me up,” Vee said with a rueful smile.  She clasped the back of Holly’s neck and kissed her briefly before she walked away.

Holly drew a deep breath, wobbled into her room and stopped short, her eyes widening.  Jay and Sharky were here.  Together.  In point of fact Jay had Sharky bent double over Holly’s desk and was thrusting into her, her hands gripping her shoulders tight.  Jay looked up at her, clearly equally startled, and shuddered to a halt.  Her hips gave one more sharp jerk forward as if she couldn’t quite stop them just like that.

“Whaaat?” Sharky moaned.  “Don’t just  _ stop,  _ I’m nearly  _ there.” _

“Holly’s back,” said Jay with a flustered smile.  “Hey Holly.  Shit, for half a second there I was reacting like it was the  _ old _ you coming in here and catching me fucking Sharky on your desk.”

“What, dressed like  _ this?” _ Holly asked, honestly rather offended.

“Oh, fuck,” said Sharky, lifting her head and giving Holly a slightly dazed grin.  “Hey Holly.  Believe it or not, we came in here to do a  _ job.” _

“Yeah, we mended your mirror.”  Jay flicked her head over at the dressing table, which did indeed have a new, intact mirror above it. 

“But then I was telling her _ how _ we cracked it and we got all frisky.”  Sharky pushed herself up on her arms.  “You wanna get in on this?”

“Do you want me to?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Sharky asked, still grinning.  “Get over here.”  She slapped the desk in front of her.  “C’mon, c’mon.”  She lifted one arm to let Holly slide in front of her and positioned her bent over the desk as she’d just been.  Behind and inside her, Jay shuffled back with some good-humoured muttering.

“Knew it,” said Sharky happily, pressing her middle and ring fingers in between Holly’s thighs.  “Wet and creamy and squishy.  Fucking all day and she’s still not tired.  You can go forever, can’t you Holls?”

“Not quite  _ forever,” _ Holly murmured.  “Oh… did you want…”  She reached back and parted her cheeks, offering her anus; it was an embarrassingly crude gesture but it was  _ Cheeky, _ after all.  Crudity was her language.  

“Holy shit, she’s  _ trained,” _ said Sharky, and Holly could hear a gleeful bubble of laughter in her voice.  

“Sharky, will you just pick where you’re going to stick it and let me get comfortable again?” Jay asked.

“Obviously I’m going to fuck her in the ass, I just want to enjoy the view first.”

“It  _ is _ a beautiful sight,” Jay said.  “Holly-dolly, will you look back at us?  Just like that.  It’s better with eye contact, right?”

“It’s more embarrassing for Holly,” Sharky said, her grin broadening.  “Here it comes.”  She took her cock in hand, seating the head firmly in the twitching mouth of Holly’s anus, took a breath and pushed in deep.  “Oh, you hear that?  That moan?  That’s Holly’s  _ special _ taking it in the ass moan.  My dick just pushes it out of her.  I  _ love _ that sound.”

Holly whimpered, “Please hold still, please hold still.”

“Course I will.  It’s okay, baby, just take a moment and get used to it.  I can feel your tight little asshole having a fit.  You’re such a  _ good _ Holly, taking it all like that.”  Her warm, slightly rough hands slid up to the small of Holly’s back, massaging firmly with her thumbs before pulling back to knead her buttocks.  “But it’s not like I’m the only one who’s been in here today, is it?  No-no-no.  Oh, a  _ lot _ of gals have greased the chute, haven’t they?  What’re you blushing about?   _ You _ did it.   _ You _ spread your legs and offered up your asshole, ‘cuz you like it, don’t you?  You like getting a big, hard, thick dick jammed right in up your ass.”

Holly was trembling with arousal and indignation, and Jay was disloyally laughing and making very poor attempts to hide it behind Sharky’s thick hair.

“Feeling better now?” Sharky asked, sliding one hand up to gently grip the nape of Holly’s neck.  She brushed her thumb against the bottom of her gemstone and chuckled as she shuddered.  ‘C’mon, Holly, tell us what you want.  Ask me  _ nicely.” _

“Oh my fuck it’s so cute when she pouts like that,” Jay giggled.  “You’re so  _ mean,  _ Sharky.  Don’t tease her, c’mon, give it to her.”

“She has to  _ ask,” _ Sharky insisted, though she was giggling too.  “Nicely, mind you!”

“Please fuck me,” Holly said in a rush.  “F-fuck me hard in the ass.”

“Of  _ course,  _ dearest Holly, you have  _ only _ to ask.”  Sharky ploughed in deep and Holly wailed and Jay muttered “Fuckin’  _ finally” _ as she grabbed Sharky’s hips and thrust again into her pussy.  Her weight combined with Sharky’s bore in on Holly, pushing her forward on the desk and sending a throbbing shock right into her belly.  Holly gasped, and heard Sharky curse, gripping her nape with one hand and her hip with the other, keeping her securely pinned as she pumped into her.  She wished she’d lain down more carefully, her breasts were awkwardly trapped between her body and the desktop and each thrust that was hard enough to push her forward hurt them a little, but she didn’t want to stop again for anything.  

The moan Sharky had talked about burst out of her again, throaty and desperate and shameful.  The thick shaft was coursing in and out of her, smooth and deep and hard, and even if it was easily contained by a sturdy body like hers it  _ felt _ so big that she knew what Carnelian had meant about feeling as if she had a bulge in her belly.

“Oh Holly — Holly —” Sharky was panting, and Jay chimed in, “Holly, baby, can you feel me too?  I’m gonna fuck you  _ through _ her.”  Holly wailed again, grinding her mound on the smooth hard desk, her cries mingling with their rough grunts and the slap of their skin, Sharky’s hips against Holly’s plush buttocks and Jay’s against hers.  Sharky was bent over her back now, sweating and heavy, with Jay pounding into  _ her  _ so fast and hard, Sharky’s hips jerking in response, that Holly did almost feel she was the one fucking her, taking them both.

“Fu-hu-huck!” Sharky groaned, her thrusting breaking down into spasms as she came, copiously, her thick semen lathering and leaking around her pulsing shaft.

“Oh, is that all you’ve got?” Jay panted.  “See, Holly, she can dish it out but she can’t take it.  Damn, she feels good, though!  You wouldn’t think she was tight, would you?  You should feel how she squeezed me when she came.”

“Fuck!  Stop — Jay, please —”

“It’s okay,” Jay said, pulling back, “it’s okay, no more, you’re done, it’s okay.”  Holly was trembling again with frustration, but she felt a little pang of fond pride for Jay’s  _ kindness.   _ “Are you all right?” she was asking Sharky, all her bluster turned into solicitude.

“I — yeah, just got — fuck, sorry about that, just kind of an overload there.”  Sharky pushed herself up on wobbly arms, her cock slipping out of Holly’s tender ring.

“No need to say sorry.  Catch your breath.  You want to sit down?”

“Lemme just…”  Sharky pivoted to hoist her backside onto the edge of the desk beside Holly, but she only managed to sit a moment before she lay back with a gusty sigh.  Holly managed to prop herself up on her elbows and reached out to brush Sharky’s sweat-damp hair off her face.  

“Did it hurt?” she asked.

“Sort of?  Just felt too  _ much.   _ Too sensitive.  Thanks.”  Sharky laid her hand over Holly’s, holding it to her cheek, the smooth soft one with no gemstone, and closed her eyes as if the touch was really comforting.  

“We know you’re such a sensitive li’l flower,” Jay said wryly, stroking Sharky’s belly as the heaving of her heavy breathing subsided.

“Fuck you,” Sharky said without any particular rancour, smiling with her eyes still closed.  She looked perfectly relaxed now, lying sprawled on Holly’s desk with her slick, flushed pussy on display and her soft wet cock flopped against her belly.  Jay’s was still stiffly erect, plum-purple, and while of course she’d cope if she couldn’t come Holly did feel a little sympathy for the two unexpected stops she’d endured.  

Jay caught Holly’s eye as she looked up from contemplating her cock and gave her a little wink.  “Sharky, if you’re okay now, you mind if I finish off with Holly?”

“Be my guest,” said Sharky, without opening her eyes.  “Got her all warmed up for ya.”

“How d’ya want it, Holly?”

“Oh! Here, please.”  Holly twisted onto her back, half sitting up, spreading her legs eagerly as she reached up one hand to Jay’s head, combing her fingers into her hair.

“Why don’t you put me inside you?” Jay asked, stepping in close, leaning her forehead lightly against Holly’s.  There was a teasing little smile on her lips, but it struck Holly as loving too —  _ loving! — _ and a little bit conspiratorial, as if she were inviting Holly to be  _ in _ on something with her.  Looking down between them, Jay’s hanging curls brushing and tickling her cheeks as her breath tickled her nose and lips, Holly steadied herself with one hand on her shoulder and took Jay’s cock in the other, guiding it into place, pulling it into her cunt and feeling it stretch inside her with an eager little tremor.  Jay gave a low, humming little moan and pressed on in, burying her full length in Holly’s warmth, grunting softly when she reached the limit.  “Thank you, baby,” she murmured against Holly’s cheek.  

She’d said that before and it still puzzled and flustered Holly to be thanked so affectionately for the use of her body, but it also gave her a small, sweet inward blooming feeling.  Jay wasn’t the only one she’d heard use “baby” as an endearment and she knew it didn’t mean a  _ baby _ baby, but considering how precious and important Jay thought babies were it probably meant something special coming from her.  She was still watching between them as Jay drew back, her cock glistening wet with her slick and Sharky’s, so far Holly was afraid she’d slip free until she plunged in again to her full depth.  She gasped and bit her lip.

“Lie down,” Jay murmured, guiding her back, cradling the back of her neck with one arm.  She kissed Holly’s lips softly until the shift in position pulled their mouths apart, and when Holly was safely down Jay bent her head to kiss between her breasts as she pulled back and surged into her.

“Oh, you fuck  _ her _ like a lady,” Sharky said, smiling.  “Why’s that?”

“Same reason I fuck you like an animal,” Jay breathed.

“You’re so fuckin’ rude.”

“Just trying to give everyone what they need.  Don’t you need this, Holly?”  She was moving slowly and steadily, each stroke a deep controlled glide into Holly’s aching centre.

“I do, I do.”

“Yeah, there you go.  You relax, I’ve got you.  Oh Holly, your face is so beautiful when you give it up like this.  Don’t you think about anything now, just feel me loving your pussy.  That’s it.  Oh… ohhh…”  Her voice was low and sweet and rough, and the stroke of her cock took the feverish warmth Sharky had stirred up and concentrated it into a sweet heat that melted the pit of Holly’s belly, the deep spot that needed it so badly.  Holly arched and moved against her, rocking her hips impatiently, gasping as wet kisses brushed her tingling breasts.  Jay was moaning, still moving with care but with a massive coiled force behind every stroke.  Her pace was quickening  and Holly urged her on with little sharp cries, clutching at her arms and embracing her hips with her legs, her cunt squeezing fitfully as the pleasure grew.

“Yes — oh please — oh yes — my Jay — my — oh fuck!  Fuck, yes, here, yes, ah!”  It was peaking, it was drawing tight inside her, they were both panting, frantic, Jay was gripping her hips and pounding into her, mumbling “I’m gonna come, Holly, oh Holly, oh baby I can’t stop, I’ve gotta, oh Holly, I’m gonna come…”

“Come for me,” Holly grunted, the muscles of her cunt clenching, working desperately against Jay’s rapid pumping stroke until it was perfect, until as Jay spurted into her she screamed with joy and relief and clung to her until her strength failed and she collapsed, her body heaving as she panted, Jay resting on her heavily and mumbling kisses around her neck and collarbones.  They lay melted together until they were still, almost calm, Jay still nestled safe inside her.

“Ohhh…” Jay sighed sweetly and lifted Holly’s head so she could kiss her mouth.  “We’re pretty fucking great together if I say so myself.  This was… this was a good idea.  Good call, me.”

“What’re you talking about?” Sharky asked, giving Jay a gentle poke in the shoulder.

“Letting her in.  Seriously,  _ everyone _ owes me for that.”

“But especially me,” Holly said, reaching up to stroke back Jay’s hair.  “Thank you for giving me a chance, dear Jay.”  

“Paid off,” Jay said with a satisfied little smile.  She kissed Holly once more and straightened up, pulling out; Holly felt thick warm liquid leaking from her pussy with a little frisson of pleasurable shame.   _ “Not _ a good idea,” Jay went on, “fucking on this desk.   _ You’re _ both great,  _ it’s _ awful.  This fuckin’ drawer pull’s been murdering my right knee.”  She moved her leg and winced.

“I’m so sorry,” Holly said.  “I didn’t realise.”

“That’s okay, I didn’t tell you.  But let’s move somewhere comfortable.”

“The freakin’ irony is we didn’t just come here to fix the mirror,” Sharky said, sitting up with a grunt and stretching her arms over her head.  “I told Jay you didn’t really have anywhere comfy to lie down, just a couch, so we made you a nice little cosy fucknest.  Not that you noticed.”

“I was absolutely correctly focused on the two of you, thank you very much,” Holly said.

“Well anyway, look.”  Jay helped her to sit up and pointed out what they’d built, a soft round bed against the wall where the couch had been, gently dished in the middle and littered with cushions — including the masturbatory one, stain and all.  They must have used the matter fabricators, which hadn’t worked all that well lately; they were getting old and before things had got so strange Holly had made a mental note to requisition replacement parts to be sent by drone ship.  She guiltily mentally underlined that note.

“Ya like it?” Sharky asked eagerly.  “Oh, and sorry, we moved the Blue Diamond portrait over to another wall, ‘cuz when I did a test lie-down she was looking at me and it was a little weird.  Unless you’d  _ like _ to feel she’s watching you get laid.”

“No no no, that will be fine,” Holly said hastily.  “It looks lovely.  May I try it?”

“Yeah, duh, it’s for you.  C’mon.”  Sharky grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the bed.  Her legs were still weak from her orgasm and it was a relief to sit down on the smooth blue sheet.  As she did she felt another warm sloppy leak and closed her eyes in shame.  She could feel the mattress shifting as Sharky clambered on and bounced on her knees.  “Look, Holly!  We got your favourite pillow.”

“Well, I — I hardly need that  _ now.”   _  She scooted herself back onto the bed, telling herself that wasn’t the last come stain that would be on these sheets by a long shot and she might as well get comfortable with that.  Sharky was still jumping around, her hair flying and breasts bouncing, and Holly couldn’t help smiling.

“Scootch over,” said Jay, pushing her into the middle of the mattress and climbing on behind her.  She winced again as she lay down and Holly rolled back towards her.

“Oh, your poor knee.”  There was a dent in the soft flesh just above the kneecap, the shape of the drawer handle in dark purple outlined by paler mauve before the proper colour of Jay’s skin reasserted itself.

“Kiss it better?” Jay said hopefully, holding it up, and Holly obliged.  “All better,” she said with certainty.  “Sharky, quit bouncing, I want a snuggle nap.”

“Aw, I just got my second wind,” Sharky said, flinging herself down on the other side of Holly and slinging an arm round her waist.  “Still, it’ll keep.  I know you’re a slut for cuddles.”  

Jay nestled in beside Holly and kissed the tip of her nose.  “Humour me with a little nap?”

“Honestly, I think it would do me good.”  Behind her Sharky bounced up again and grabbed the folded blanket at the foot of the bed, pulling it up over the three of them; they both seemed to think this was a perfectly normal thing to do and Holly could only tell herself that she felt so stiff and odd because she’d been stupid enough to hold herself aloof from their companionship so long.  They snuggled in around her, dabbing soft light kisses on her cheeks and shoulders, twining their legs with hers, whispering “Sleep tight” and “Sweet dreams.”  She lay in a nest of their arms and bodies, smelling the scent of their hair and their sweat, bewildered but warmed by their affection.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh this felt like it took forever to write; I was stuck for so long. When I get stuck like that I feel like it does something weird to the pace of the thing when I finally get moving again; I hope I've compensated for that.  
> Also, in case it needs to be specified: Stuff is Done in this story by shapeshifting aliens who can adapt their bodies to whatever they want to do that humans should not try to do without a LOT more added lubrication.

Holly woke with a sharp inhalation.  It had seemed to her she was walking through an empty station, the click of her heels echoing hollowly in the halls, walking faster as she grew aware of how silent it was, beginning to run as she became desperate to find someone, anyone, becoming certain there was no one and she was totally alone — and then she was here, lying cosily between Sharky and Jay.  What was that?  It had been like vividly remembering something except she was sure it had never happened.  It must be a sleeping thing, some kind of side effect of suspending higher mental functions.  She would have to ask them when they woke up.

She had fallen asleep on her back but now she was lying on her side, Sharky nestled right behind her so Holly’s bottom was in her lap, her arm draped over Holly’s waist and her hand cupping her lower tummy.  Jay lay facing her but lower down, her cheek against Holly’s breasts.  She could feel Sharky’s soft breathing against the nape of her neck and Jay’s tickling her left nipple.  

She couldn’t see Sharky’s face, but Jay’s looked absolutely peaceful, as soft and sweet as — good grief, as soft and sweet as that little sleeping baby.  Holly hadn’t felt anything in particular for the baby human when she held it except concern that she would damage it somehow, but now here she was feeling an intense warm ache in her chest and a need to keep Jay as close to her as possible.  If Sharky was looking like that too it would be her undoing.  

_ It could have been like this all along.  If I had just — no, I had to be tough on them, I had to be strict, you can’t just — oh damn it, I could have been loved all over inside and out this entire time, the work would have been done, and if I had to put up with a little rowdy behaviour would it have been so dreadful?   _ Her eyes began to prickle with tears and she shut them tight, pressing on their inner corners with her thumb and forefinger.  

_ It’s absurd to feel like this about them all of a sudden.  Having sex with people does not mean you’ve suddenly got a real bond or they  _ love _ you.  Some of them still don’t even really like me, I  _ know _ that.  I am doing this to have something to fall back on, to have somewhere to belong, to make life bearable, at least for as long as Blue Diamond doesn’t find out how I’ve failed her.  I mustn’t lose sight of the facts or I’ll get myself into a silly emotional state that only sets me up for hurt feelings.  More hurt feelings. _

_ Morale officer is something I can do and they’ll — they’ll get used to me.  They’ll start to rely on me being there for them, making them happy.  Vee is softening up, she says.  I wish I  _ knew _ which ones don’t like me.  I’m only really sure about XK.  Carnie wanted to point at me and laugh but hasn’t  _ she _ softened up?  I need to just work out what each of them wants, or needs, or…  I can do it.  In a calm, sensible way.  I should find out what XK wants.  I shouldn’t just lie here with Jay and Cheeky because it’s easy.  I have no idea  _ why _ it’s so easy.  Well,  _ I’m _ easy, aren’t I?  I think we’ve firmly established that… and it feels nice to be easy, honestly.  It’s certainly rewarding. _

She sniffled through a rueful smile.  She probably  _ was _ going to lie here a while longer.  It wasn’t as if she could get up without disturbing them.  And as long as she was being that self-indulgent, she might as well go the whole hog.  Trying to keep her hand as light as possible, she brushed Jay’s tumbled hair back from her cheek, so silky-soft and fluffy.  She’d always felt an absurd wish to stretch out that one thick curl and watch it spring back. She tried hooking her fingertip into the very end of it and drawing it out a little before releasing it.  It  _ did _ spring back in a very satisfying way.  Very gently, she did it again.  That was delightful.  Again!

“You  _ boinging _ me, Holly-dolly?”  Jay blinked up at her drowsily.

“No!”

“Are too,” Jay said, with a lazy, warm little chuckle, and kissed her, wrapping her arms around Holly’s shoulders.  She inadvertently swiped her hand across Sharky’s face, waking her with a jerk.

“Wst?” Sharky said.  “Ugh.  Hmmmm.”  She stretched against Holly’s back and kissed the nape of her neck, tightening her arm around her middle.  “Damn… somebody’s nice to wake up to.”

“She was boinging my hair,” Jay reported.  “Sort of cute.”

“Oh, your curly-wurl?  Couldn’t resist it, couldja?”  She nuzzled against the back of Holly’s head, her nose lightly brushing the edge of her gemstone.  Their voices were both so soft and husky with sleep and the sound was just inexpressibly sexy.  Holly twisted onto her back so she could have an arm around each of them and kissed Sharky on impulse, feeling the sharp prickle of her teeth against her lower lip.  “Aw, yeah,” Sharky sighed.  “You’re spoiling us now.  Keep it coming.”

With a soft grunt Jay sat up and stretched her arms over her head, one at a time with the other arm bracing it, before sinking down again beside Holly.

“Do you  _ know,” _ Holly asked, “how spectacular your breasts are when you do that?”

“I have no idea and that’s why I did it right in front of you,” Jay said, kissing her again with a chuckle in her throat.  “You’re not the only one who wants to show off, Miss Morale Officer.  You like your new bed?”

“Yes.  Thank you.”

“Hey, let’s get you out of these things.  You can be out of uniform in bed.”  Jay sat up again, pulling off Holly’s boots and dumping them on the floor, while Sharky relieved her of her capelet.

“We’re gonna have such a good time, you know that, don’t you?”  Jay drew her warm palm down over Holly’s tummy, spreading her fingers and thumb wide to squeeze its softness, pressing through to the firm muscle beneath.  “That’s a  _ strong _ Holly.  You’re gonna have to be, but we can be gentle with you too, right?  I like being gentle.”  

“I can when I gotta be,” Sharky murmured.  “Or when I’m feeling lazy.  Feel kind of lazy now.”  She bent her head a little to kiss Holly’s breast nearest to her.  

“Gentleness would be very welcome,” Holly said.  

“Good,” Jay said, kissing her cheek.  “You comfy?”

“Yes… Jay?”

“Mm?”  She was stroking downward, fluffing the edges of Holly’s pubic hair with her fingertips.

“It’s something I like about you.  You — you’re very solicitous.  Everyone is kind, of course, I don’t mean they’re anything less, but you in particular have been very considerate of me from the beginning.”

“Oh,” said Jay, looking a little startled.  “I was actually feeling a little guilty that maybe I was  _ tough _ on you in the beginning so I was trying to make up for it.”

“Where and how the fuck were you tough on her?” Sharky asked, letting Holly’s nipple slip from her mouth.  “This is you all over, you’re such a softie.  Baby-hugging dork.”

Jay laughed and stuck her tongue out at Sharky.  “I’m feeling so good right now I’m not even going to pop you one for sass,” she said.  “I dunno, maybe I am soft, I started out trying to put you in your place a little, Holly-dolly.  Make you wait, make you beg for it.  But the more I got to touch you and the more you were just so cute and needy, the more I started to like you and just wanna take care of you.  It’s a relief.  I got to see the real you and look, she’s  _ sweet.   _ You know you don’t ever need to be the mean bossy Holly again and I know you were just putting her on the whole time.”

_ Oh my stars she gives me far too much credit.   _ Holly felt a sharp pang of guilt at that but really,  _ really _ did not want to set Jay straight when she was petting her pussy like this.  She kissed her instead, trying to make it sweet.  As long as she was feeling guilty, though, there was something she really had to do.  “Ch— Sharky?”

“Hm?”  She looked up from Holly’s breast, still suckling.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”  Sharky lifted her head and blinked at her.

“For… this morning, for the… outburst during the meeting.”

Sharky frowned a moment and then her brow cleared.  “Oh,  _ that. _  I’d kinda forgotten.  It’s not important.”

“I… thought you were really angry with me, though.”

“What outburst?” Jay asked.  “I didn’t hear about any outbursts.  Was there drama?”

“Oh, Holly didn’t get why we’re so interested in the humans’ lives and she was kind of a bitch about it and when I told her to cut it out she got all upset and took off for a while.  I figured you were just embarrassed, Holls.  Nothing really bad happened, right?”

“Oh.”  It was a relief, but she also felt rather stupid.  “I was afraid I’d spoiled everything.”

“Nah.  Worrying for nothing.  Still, if you wanna make it up to me you got options.”  Sharky grinned and waggled her eyebrows.

“Say something you like about  _ her,” _ suggested Jay.

“Oh, that is so weak.  You’re so  _ nice,” _ Sharky said.  “Go on Holly, say nice shit about me.”

_ Do they  _ all _ want that?  Even if Sharky’s being sarcastic.   _ “Well… you are energetic, and audacious… you, um... “  She nibbled her lip, thinking.  “You’re surprising.”

“And I’m cheeky,” Sharky said, nuzzling Holly’s cheek.

“You are  _ appallingly _ cheeky.”

“We had a little tiff too,” said Jay, as if she wanted to keep up, “but we cleared that up pretty fast.”

“She doesn’t need to hear details,” Holly said quickly.

“Is this the one where you yelled ‘Shit shit shitty shit?’” Sharky asked.  “‘Cuz I already heard about that.”

“Oh, no…”

“Our gossip network ain’t perfect but it’s pretty great.”

“Of course, it’s been going berserk-o today,” Jay said.  “Everyone you paid one of your little calls wanted to tell everyone else they saw.  Holly Blue’s giving titjobs, pass it on.  Holly Blue squirted all over Vee, it was epic, pass it on.  Holly Blue shapeshifts the cutest little dick, pass it on.”

“It was only little on the first try.  It was a false start,” Holly protested.

“Okay, show us the real deal then,” said Jay, reasonably.

“Um, I — it’s a little embarrassing.  I’ll try.”  She closed her eyes and concentrated.  There, that should be it.  She opened her eyes and found both of them visibly trying not to laugh.

“It  _ is _ the cutest little dick,” said Jay.  “It’s like my pinkie.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Holly huffed.  “I don’t even really _ want _ one, I was just being obliging.  Let’s see, I — there.”  The second try seemed to do the trick, once again, although it lay soft between her thighs.  “Point made,” she said and retracted it.

“Aww, boo, I wanted to suck you off,” said Sharky.  “I’m good, you know.  I can take it right down my throat.”

“Well, tempting as that offer is I just feel more comfortable in my… my receptive role.”

“You’re  _ extremely _ receptive,” said Jay, licking her fingers and slipping them between Holly’s pussy lips.  “Believe me, we  _ all _ like that about you.”

“Yeah, honestly, the first time I saw Jay and Ellie DP you I thought ‘She’s gonna be okay,’” said Sharky.  “Your face was a picture — I mean, there’s a security feed on that room so we can probably get  _ actual pictures _ — you were just like, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing but my pride as an Agate dictates I do it really really well,’ and then by the time you had Jay in you too, you could feeling them moving inside you together, then all higher functions went bye-bye and you just blissed out.”

“It  _ is _ very, um, satisfying,” Holly said.  Jay was gently moving her fingers and she felt a growing need to move her hips in response.  “I feel sort of… is it ridiculous to feel powerful in those circumstances?”

“Hell no,” said Jay.  “You  _ are _ powerful.  You’re strong and flexible and you can handle whatever we give you.  You like a challenge, don’t you?  You like seeing how much you can fit  _ in _ there, right?”  She slipped two fingers into Holly’s pussy for emphasis.

“Yes,” Holly admitted, flexing her back a little, pressing against Jay’s hand.  “It’s… a little crude of me.”

“That must be why we’re into it,” Sharky said.  She propped her head up on her arm, looking down on Holly fondly.  “Nothing beats fucking you but I love watching you.  How’s that feel?”

“It’s — oh…”  Holly lost what she would have said as Jay trailed her wet fingers up over her clitoris and settled them to rub lightly on each side of it.  “Oh Jay, thank you, yes, that’s…”  Her voice faded again as the pleasure swelled, a tingly, hot sensation that made her close her eyes in bliss, catching her lower lip under her teeth.  She tilted her hips up to it and rocked them as it grew and pulsed, and felt another delicious hot, slick leak from between her lips, trickling down over her anus to soak into the sheet under her.  “Oh, you  _ star,” _ she breathed.

“Ooh, high praise.”  Jay kept working her slowly, gently, gradually increasing the pressure and the pace in response to Holly’s whimpers and gasps.  When at last she came it was an electrical pulse that left her trembling and limp, her bottom resting on a very warm, wet sheet.  They cuddled her between them as she caught her breath, then rolled her onto her side, Sharky stroking her from the front while Jay fingered her from behind.  

“Don’t you want to fuck me?” she asked breathlessly.

“Be patient,” Jay told her, and gripped the nape of her neck as she pushed three fingers in deep.  “Fuck, your pussy’s so  _ wet.”   _

“And she loves it,” Sharky said, grinning.  “Hey Holly, you wanna try something  _ really _ pervy?”

“Such as?” Holly asked cautiously.

“I think I know where this is going,” said Jay, her breath chuffing softly against Holly’s shoulder.

“Okay, hear me out,” said Sharky, tapping Holly on the nose.  “You like double penetration, right?  Your pussy and your asshole both full of hot throbbing dick?  Well, may I present to you a concept — DP, but  _ same hole.”   _ She made a circle of one of her hands and pumped two fingers of the other in it, grinning salaciously.

“It wouldn’t  _ fit,”  _ Holly protested.  “You fit snugly as it is.”

“C’mon,” said Jay, stroking Holly’s hip with her other hand.  “You can stretch.  You’re not an ace shapeshifter yet but if you can make a cute little pecker and a big floppy cock, not to mention the best self-lubing asshole I’ve ever fucked, you can sure as hell make a little extra pussy space.”  Her fingers undulated, drawing a soft slurping sound from Holly’s eager cunt.

“Is it really the best?” Holly asked, perking up.

“Oh shit, you’re adorable.  Yeah, but don’t tell any of the others.  Just quietly secretly know you have the lushest asshole in the Zoo.”  She circled it with her thumb.

“Speaking as a connoisseur of ass, I think Jay is right,” said Sharky.  “But seriously, you wanna try?  If you get a bang out of really stuffing your pussy this’ll give you a  _ boom.” _

“How would we do it?” Holly asked.  “Hypothetically.”

“Hypothetically I’d wanna start by getting you  _ extremely _ wet,” said Jay.  “Check.  And I’d want to gently stretch your pussy with my fingers, a little more at a time.  Check.”  She tucked her pinky finger in under the other three, easing them deeper.  “How’s that?”

“Oh… oh, it’s very tight but… oh…”

“Getting good?”

“Yes,” Holly said, nodding fervently.  Jay’s fingers were sliding smoothly in her abundant wetness and it was starting to feel as if after a few more strokes they might actually slip in past the knuckles.  She had been so shocked this morning — and it had only been  _ this morning,  _ it felt like  _ weeks _ ago — to see that Amethyst on the receiving end of something like this.  She’d only been able to imagine how painful it would surely be.  There was a  _ strain,  _ her pussy felt stretched to its limit, it was so close to actually hurting that she could hardly believe how much she wanted more.  She was clutching Sharky’s upper arms tightly enough for her fingers to make deep dents in her flesh.

“You’re doing great, Holls,” Sharky said in an eager husky whisper.  “You just hold onto me, let Jay open you up.  She’s good with her hands, right?”

“Ah…”  Holly caught herself on the brink of drooling, sucking in her lower lip.  Jay was tucking in her thumb now, easing her fingers deeper, and her cunt gave a sharp twitch of resistance that really did hurt.  She pulled in a loud squeaking gasp before the pain subsided.

“You okay, baby?” Jay asked.

“Ye-yes.  Oh, give me a moment.”

“As long as you need,” Jay assured her.  “We don’t need to force it.”

“Try licking her gemstone,” Sharky suggested.  “She fuckin’ loves that.”

“You love that, Holly-puss?” Jay murmured.  Holly felt her tongue flick against her gem and groaned.  “Holy shit,” said Jay, “she legit just got wetter.”

Sharky snorted with laughter.  “It’s not a push-button, lick here, dispense goosh,” she said, “but that was a  _ nice _ coincidence.  Keep doing it, it’ll definitely keep her mind off anything hurting.”  Holly felt Jay’s tongue fluttering softly against the base of the stone and a shiver raced up her spine to meet it.  

“Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes,” she panted.  She drew a deep breath and pushed her hips back against Jay’s hand, moaning as she took it in past the knuckles, feeling a thrill of pride at her sheer capacity.

“Listen to that, her getting fisted noise is a lot like her taking it up the ass noise,” said Jay, and kissed her gemstone.

“The aficionado hears a difference,” said Sharky.  “Talk to us, Holly, you still okay?”

“Once… once you get it past the, the widest — the…”  Holly had to stop for a deeper breath.  “It gets easier.”

“Did you  _ ever _ think you’d do something like this?” Sharky asked, and Holly gave a startled laugh.

“No, no, I did not.”  The pressure inside her was huge and she couldn’t help looking down to see if there  _ was _ a visible bulge in her tummy, but it looked perfectly normal.  She would have  _ liked _ a bulge, something to show  _ off. _

“Well, you should be  _ very _ proud of yourself,” Jay murmured, gently rocking her hand in place.  “Not everyone can handle this.  Is it starting to feel good?”  Holly nodded urgently.  “Okay.  Let’s get you up.”  She eased her hand back out and Holly whined in disappointment.  “No-no-no, it’s okay, you’re gonna be full again in just a minute.  C’mon.”  She let Holly roll onto her back again and the two of them helped her to sit up, then get to her knees.

“Here we go,” Sharky said, turning Holly to face Jay and squeezing her ass with both hands.  “You want it from the front or the back first?”

“I don’t know, I just want it.”  

“Here, baby, hold onto me,” Jay said, rising on her knees and guiding Holly’s arms around her shoulders.  “Just hold tight, lemme get you up, Sharky, give her a boost, that’s it.”  She hoisted Holly in her arms, lifting her legs, getting herself settled, well balanced on the bed.  “Hey Sharky, help me in.”

“Thi-this is very good teamwork, you two,” Holly said, “I j-just want you to know I notice that.”  She heard an affectionate chuckle from Jay and felt her thick, hard cock, guided by Sharky’s hand, pushing into her pussy.  “Oh!”

“Aw yeah,” Jay sighed, flicking her hips forward and up.  “You ready for Sharky to join me?  Yeah?  Okay, Holly-baby, you hold on tight to me.  Once she’s in Sharky will be holding you up too.  If it hurts too much, we’ll stop.”

“But before you decide it hurts too much, see if you can juuuust loosen up that pussy a little.  You’d be amazed what you can do with the right  _ motivation.” _  Sharky shuffled in behind her, squeezing and kneading her soft buttocks, taking some of her weight from Jay.  “Here we go, Holly-dolly, here it comes, two big fat dicks right where you need ‘em.”

Holly caught her breath with a sharp hiss as she felt the head of Sharky’s cock pressing at the mouth of her pussy, nudging its way in against Jay’s thick shaft.

“Keep breathing, baby, keep breathing,” Jay murmured.  “Your pussy is so soft and deep and wet.  It’s amazing.  When I sink my cock into you I know you can take  _ anything,  _ you’re so strong, you’ll hold me… oh, here she comes, fuck, that feels good!”  Holly’s cunt was yielding, Sharky’s cock delving in against its spasms.

“It hurts,” Holly whimpered.  She was trying desperately not to tighten up but her knuckles were white as she gripped handfuls of Jay’s hair.  She felt as if something would split any moment, the mouth of her cunt stretched taut around the two of them.   _ Breathe, _ she reminded herself,  _ breathe, you can do it, of course you can do it, you’re just not used to it yet and it’s not as if it’s  _ easy _ to reshape your body under this kind of invasion.   _ Sharky was halfway in now, panting on her nape and lapping at her gemstone, whether to keep her distracted from the stretching pain or to reduce her to even more abject quivering.  

She tried to concentrate, to co-ordinate in her mind how things should be.  She just couldn’t  _ quite _ get to the tipping point where things would change.   _ I don’t want to go all gaping loose, I just want a  _ comfortable _ snug fit, so I feel the stretch and the push and I know how  _ obscene _ this is but I don’t get torn open.   _ Sharky pushed deeper and she yelped in pain and the surge of panic seemed to be the  _ motivation _ Sharky had talked about.  Things shifted inside her and the pressure eased and Sharky’s dick rammed right up inside her with a smack.  She gave an excited chuff and drew back to pound in again.

“You did it!” Jay gasped, exultant, and quickened her own pace, the two of them coursing in and out of her alternately, thick shafts rubbing sleekly against each other with every stroke, the  _ sound _ of her burning cunt  _ slurping _ around them so totally, shamefully lascivious that Holly had to hide her face in Jay’s hair.  The pain was fading and the pleasure was mounting higher and hotter all the time, she was in awe of what she was  _ doing _ and shocked at what she was letting them do  _ to _ her, and they were both calling her name almost like the spectators chanting when she was fucked by the whole pack of them.  She was safely pinned between them, supported by two sets of strong arms and being lifted and rolled by the thrusting of two powerful sets of hips.  She let her head fall back, gasping in delight and relief, little escalating cries that built to an ecstatic scream.

“Oh Holly!”  Jay thrust faster still, her face alight, while Sharky clutched at her ass, growling low in her throat, both pounding into her relentlessly.  Jay came just slightly before Sharky, snapping her hips forward while Sharky ground against her, spurting together copiously, streams of come running down the slopes of Holly’s buttocks and dripping down their straining thighs.  

“Fu-huh-huck,” Sharky groaned, and smacked a kiss on Holly’s neck.  “Okay, we — we gotta set her down ‘cuz I’m gonna collapse.”  She kept her hands under Holly’s backside as she sank down to sit on her heels.

“Okay,” Jay panted, lowering Holly to the bed and rolling onto her back beside her.  “Oh,  _ Holly!”   _ She gave a little bubble of giddy laughter, pushing her hands back through her hair.  They all lay still a few minutes, catching their breath in a hot, wet tangle of bodies.  

“I’m calling it now, we have the best Agate anywhere,” Sharky said, rolling half over Holly to kiss her trembling lips.  “Tell us we’re the best Amethysts,” she added, rubbing noses with her and smirking.

“You’re the best,” Holly said readily.  She was euphoric enough to agree to nearly anything, but she didn’t have to lie.  Sharky plainly wasn’t measuring her against any normal standard for Agates, only talking about how much she enjoyed fucking her, and by the same standard they were clearly the best of all possible Amethysts.  It still didn’t feel quite real what they had just done, how they had carried her beyond the limit of what she’d felt capable of.

“Not so off-colour now, right?”

“Well…”  Holly reached up to stroke Sharky’s hair back from her flushed, sweating face.  “Homeworld Amethysts are more  _ uniform,  _ and that makes them all the more impressive en masse, but I’m finally getting to  _ appreciate _ all your variations of colour and form.”  She traced her fingers down over Sharky’s cheek and brushed her lips.

“Rar,” said Sharky, catching Holly’s fingertips between her teeth a moment before letting them go.  She looked unexpectedly moved by the praise.

“Makes us more interesting, right Holls?” Jay asked, rolling over to flop her head back on Holly’s breasts, blanketing her with her thick warm hair.  “Each and every one an intriguing weirdo, fulla goofy little quirks to discover.”  Seeming unable to lie still, she bobbed up to kiss Holly again.

“I…” Holly hesitated a moment, trailing her fingers through Jay’s curls.  “Today I promised Carnie I would tell her something good I’ve noticed about her every day for a week.  Do you think everyone would like that?  For each of you?”

“I’m not trying to spoil your plan, but are you sure you could do everyone at the same time?”

“I dunno,” said Sharky, “doing everyone at the same time worked out for her yesterday.”  Jay snickered appreciatively.

“It’s part of my job to keep records, to monitor what goes on on this station, I’m  _ sure _ I could make observations of your good qualities.”  Holly tried her best to squash down some doubts based on recent information about how well she’d been able to monitor the Choosening system.  This and that were different things; no one would be trying to deceive her about their good points.

“If you wanted to try, then yeah, I think we’d love that.”

“Nearly as much as all the sloppy enthusiastic blowjobs,” said Sharky.  “I guess it counts as morale too.”

“We could help you cheat a little while you get the hang of it,” Jay offered.  “Tell you some things about the others you might not have noticed yet.  Have you ever seen Kay’s drawings?  She’s really good.  And Exes is amazing at figuring out what’s wrong with humans when they get sick.  We always check with the medi-scanner too, but most of the time it’s just confirming what Exes thought.”

“Skinny’s worked out how to hack all the computers,” said Sharky, “but she uses her powers for good, not evil.  Tee can triple-curl her tongue, it’s  _ gross.   _ Oh, and Chip gives really good massages.”

“You should encourage Chip,” said Jay.  “She’s so sweet but she just doesn’t have a lot of confidence.”  She frowned in thought for a moment.  “She actually seriously wants to please you.  Like she always has.  I think it would mean a lot to her especially to hear that you noticed her doing something good.  Don’t try to do everyone at first, there’s like forty of us.  I think you should start out with Chip and Carnie.”

“Right on,” said Sharky.  “Chip deserves to feel special, she’s way too fuckin’ humble.”

Holly tried guiltily to place who they were  _ talking _ about, and thanked her stars as she remembered it was that Raspberry Quartz, the reddish one who wasn’t  _ quite _ an Amethyst and had an imperfection in her teeth too.  Sharky’s teeth had formed sharp; Chip’s had formed incompletely, so that she always looked as if she’d recently lost part of one in a fight.  “All right,” she said, “if you think she’s the best place to start I’ll be guided by you.”  She hesitated.  “I do appreciate your advice.  Perhaps… Jay, I know you take an interest in the Choosening and I need to make more selections soon.  I’d like to hear your suggestions.  The decisions are still mine,” she added hastily, “it’s my responsibility, but it sounds as if you can add… information I’m less aware of.”

“Aw, Holly!”  Jay flung her arms around her and hugged her tight.  “I would love to be your helper.”

“Suck-up,” said Sharky.  “I don’t want to be your helper.  I want to spank you and bite you and pull your hair and tease you about what a sloppy slut you are.  Would you appreciate that too?”

“Yes,” Holly said in a small voice.  Sharky’s eyes lit up and she pounced on her for a deep, fierce kiss.  

“I will  _ not _ let you down,” she said.  “I swear it on your creamy squishy fucked-out pussy.  How’s that feeling, by the way?”

“Exhausted,” Holly said.  “Sore.  Very satisfied.”

“Your pussy deserves a medal,” said Jay.  “Or maybe a bath.  A warm bath’s good for that kind of sore.”

“When I begin to feel as if I could walk again, I think I’d like that very much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first posted I forgot to say - events in this chapter were significantly inspired by [this awesomely filthy drawing by molded-from-clay.](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/post/159079769322/full-image-under-the-cut-not-an-april-fool-i) The levels of ass on display are simply off the charts. Government assologists slowly took their glasses off and stared in that weird way people only do in movies and TV because they are played by actors who don't wear glasses for real life and somehow think you would take them off to see something incredible BETTER.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just before you start I'll say that this is a half-pint chapter (almost literally, the previous one was 5018 words and this one is 2259). With that in mind, I hope you enjoy!

Since she didn’t feel like walking after all, Sharky carried Holly to the bathroom in her arms, wrapped in the soft blue blanket from the new bed.  She was grinning proudly and swaggering the whole way.

“I know you’re too sore to do it again right away, but we have  _ got  _ to do that in front of everyone sometime.  Show everyone what you can  _ do.”   _

“It’s a damn shame there are no feed sensors in Holly’s room or we could show ‘em that way,” said Jay, strolling along beside them.  Holly was puzzled by her own reaction; every other time someone had suggested putting security footage of her on display she’d felt shocked and dismayed, but now she actually felt a little dismayed that there  _ was _ no recording of her feat.   _ I probably made ugly faces the whole time,  _ she reminded herself.   _ But still!  Proof.  Not that I expect people won’t believe we did it, I have Sharky and Jay to tell everyone, but… I don’t know, I suppose I’d like something to remember it by.  Well, I have a very sore and slightly swollen pussy but that isn’t a long-lasting memento.   _

“Oh look, they already got started on the posters!” Sharky exclaimed.  Hanging on the corridor wall was a large pink illuminated panel displaying the bold words, “RULE ONE: FUCK HOLLY.”  Under that it went on, “Holly Blue Agate is coming off a five-thousand-year dry spell.  It is the duty of every Quartz on this station to GET HER WET.”

“Oh, I like what they did with the double meaning,” said Jay.  “Witty!”

“Could do with some pictures for us visual learners,” said Sharky, “but I like the font.”

“Oh my stars,” Holly muttered.

The panel twinkled and wiped to display a colourful drawing of Holly nude on her back, her legs spread, looking blushy yet flirtatious.  Sharky whooped.

“I did  _ not _ pose for that!”

“Aw, don’t you like it?” Jay asked.  “You look so cute.”

“I — I suppose it is a flattering likeness.”  Whoever drew it had certainly made her look pretty in spite of the undignified pose.  Would Kay have done that or was there another artist among them?

“No it’s not,” said Sharky, “that’s just what you look like.  Let’s get you cleaned up, sticky-puss.”  She strode on but got distracted just around the corner by another panel displaying “RULE TWO: NO HOGGING HOLLY.  HOLLY IS FOR EVERYONE.”  That was followed by the picture from Rule One but with lavish splatters of come all over Holly’s mouth, breasts, hands, thighs and obviously pussy.

“That’s  _ awesome,” _ Sharky said gleefully.

“Look at the attention to detail,” said Jay.  “She didn’t just add spunk to the first one, she redrew parts of it.  Your lips are all puffy and your nipples are swollen and your pussy’s gaping open.”

“I can see that,” Holly said, looking at it between her fingers.

“I love how big and hard your nips get when I play with them,” Sharky said.  “She really captured that!”

“Is this Kay’s work that you were talking about?”

“Yep!  I don’t think you’d like the caricatures she used to draw quite as much.  The new stuff’s hot, I love it.”

“How did she even get all this done so fast?” Jay marvelled.  “She must’ve been super inspired.”

Around the next corner, predictably, was “RULE THREE:  HOLLY NEEDS TO COME.  GET HER OFF BEFORE YOU’RE DONE.”  The accompanying picture was of Holly in an Amethyst’s lap, her partner’s face unseen but her hands gripping Holly’s ankles to raise them high, her cock crammed deep into her pussy, Holly clutching at her own hair in ecstasy as she squirted an arc of glistening liquid.  Just to make the point that she was having a  _ really _ good time there were little blue love-hearts apparently flying out of her head somehow and a little flash like an explosion over her lower belly.  It was a bit ridiculous, but on the other hand, it really did feel like that sometimes.

“Well, there’s some artistic licence  _ there,” _ said Holly.  “I don’t think I can squirt like  _ that  _ without finger massage and clitoral stimulation at the same time.”

“I love how she draws the liquids,” said Sharky, “they look so shiny and gooshy.”

“And again, details!” Jay enthused.  “Look at the sweat between your titties and the way your hair curls where it’s wet, and she’s even got the way your eyes roll up!”

“Do they really do that?” Holly asked, discomfited.

“Yeah, the left one turning in, just like that.”

“It looks… goofy.”

“We’re all a little goofy when we nut,” said Sharky, shrugging comfortably.  “This is why you’re  _ fun. _  You’re a messy, sloppy fuck.  You drool a little and you roll your eyes and you bite your lip and make weird faces, sure — that’s just cute.”

“I love knowing that you’re feeling something so strong you’re not controlling your face at all,” Jay added.  “That’s why it’s hot.”

“Higher functions gone bye-bye, turbo fuck mode initiated,” agreed Sharky.  “Hold on tight and enjoy the ride.”

“That reminds me, we have  _ gotta _ teach you how to ride us,” said Jay.  “You don’t even know how good that feels yet.”

“You ride your favourite pillow, right?” Sharky asked, giving Holly a sidelong glance and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.  “You’re a natural.  Haha, made you blush.”

“Don’t be a meanie,” Jay said, and swatted Sharky on the bottom.  

“It’s my thing,” said Sharky.  “And onward.  Bathward.”

There was no one else in the bathroom, although it appeared to have been cleaned and tidied a little.  They helped her to a stool by the showers and gently bathed and rinsed her, large hands sweeping softly over her skin, bringing cupped palmfuls of warm water between her thighs to slowly pour rather than splash or spray where she was sore.

“You’re a fast healer,” said Sharky, examining the collar of love-bites she’d given Holly that morning.  “These are fading already.”

“That doesn’t mean you need to freshen them up,” Holly warned her.  

“Nah, it’s more fun to wait until you’re all clear blue again and then give you a new set.  I’ll wait for you to give me the all clear,” she said, bending to kiss Holly’s cheek.  

After washing they helped her into a warm bath, one of the smaller and shallower oval pools, where she lay with her bottom between Jay’s legs, leaning back against her body, while Sharky sat at the other end facing them, holding Holly’s feet in her lap and gently rubbing the soles.

Jay gave a deep, peaceful sigh, tickling Holly’s gemstone, half-covered by loose strands of freshly-washed hair.  “This is good,” she said.  “How’s Holly-baby?”

“I’m still quite sore but feeling soothed.”

“You were so brave.  This is your comfort time now so just relax.”  She scooped up a handful of warm water and gently trickled it over Holly’s shoulders.  

“Your feet aren’t ticklish, are they Holls?” Sharky asked.

“No,” Holly said firmly.  She had no idea; no one had ever tried to tickle her.  

“That’s good,” Sharky said calmly, stroking the soft arch of the sole with her thumbs.  There didn’t seem to be any joke or teasing to follow that; it seemed she was just taking care of her.  It was mildly disconcerting.

“I’m a little worried,” Holly admitted, “that I won’t be able to get my vagina back the way it was.  I’ve tried a little to shapeshift it back with no success.”

“That happens sometimes after a big blowout fuck,” Jay said.  “It’ll be okay, you just need to rest it a while.  I’ve known people get stuck with a shape a while if they’re tired, but not permanently.”

Sharky snickered.  “Remember when Peek got stuck all day with two dicks?”

“Too bad she doesn’t have ‘em now, she and Holly’d be a match.”

Holly slid down a little in the water.  “I have to admit it still feels strange to me the way you’ll all change intimate parts of your bodies around…  _ recreationally.” _

“Well, it’s fun,” Jay said, stroking her hair.  “You really never tried it before you wanted to get together with us?”

“No.  My Diamond had me made in this configuration, so the only reason to change it would be if she told me to, to better serve her.”

“Well, you say ‘this configuration’ but you’ve already changed it,” Sharky pointed out.  “With that excellent asshole of yours.”

“I modified my vagina a bit too, to try to make it more, um, resilient,” Holly admitted.  

“That was good thinking,” said Jay.  “Hey, looking at it from the other side, how would changing your body for fun mean you served our Diamond  _ less?   _ ‘Cuz if it doesn’t stop us doing a good job, I don’t see why we shouldn’t play with ourselves.”

“I’ve already  _ done _ it,” Holly said, “so there’s no need for a justification now.”

“You sound kinda guilty about it, that’s all.  I don’t think you need to.  You’re not disrespecting how she had you made, and you can always go back to it if she wants you to.”

“Just like you could put your hair in one big bun for a while and then go back to two,” Sharky suggested.  “No harm done.”

“You’re both so kind to try to make me feel better,” Holly said, alarmed at the wobble entering her voice, “but I think we both know Blue Diamond’s not going to want me for anything now.”  To her utter dismay, she began to cry.

“Oh, Holly!” Jay exclaimed, hugging her tighter.

“This isn’t just about pussy, is it?” Sharky asked.  “I mean, I didn’t even think you had that kind of a relationship with her.”

“She’s never touched me,” Holly sobbed, “that’s not the point.”

“Tell us about it,” Jay urged, rubbing between her shoulderblades.  “You can tell us anything.”

“I’ve let her down, that ridiculous mess with those horrible rebels and that  _ Pearl _ and the stolen humans and if she ever finds out about it she’ll have no use for me at all.  And you  _ know _ what happens to Gems that there’s no use for.”  She covered her face with her hands, sniffing and gulping.

“Holly,” said Jay firmly, “there is no reason for that ever to happen.  Because who knows about it?  You, us, XM and her friends.  Who in that group is gonna tell on you?  Unless you go crazy and confess, no one.  So it’s not gonna happen.”

“But if she — if she comes back and asks to see the humans she brought…”

“Then you tell her it was so sad but they died,” said Sharky, moving towards her in the tub with a surge of water.  “Must’ve had something wrong with ‘em when they came in, hardly lasted a day.  And we disposed of ‘em according to protocol, exactly how Pink Diamond set it out, safe and sanitary, and luckily it didn’t spread to the others.  They’re gone and we’re sorry but there was nothing anyone could’ve done.  And everyone on this station will tell the same story.  Okay?  Listen to us, Holly, we’ve got your back on this.”  She put her hands on Holly’s shaking shoulders, steadying her.

“We won’t tell on you,” Jay said, leaning over her shoulder and kissing her cheek.  “We want you to stay.”

“Yeah.  You’re ours.  And honestly, we wouldn’t have told on you anyway, even if you were still just hiding out in your room.  We’d be crazy to try and get rid of you, with no idea who’d take your place.”

“That’s a little less comforting, Sharky,” said Jay.

“Well, we might get someone heinous like Shadow Agate!  I’m saying it wrong, forget that part.”

“No, it’s — actually, it’s reassuring in its own way,” Holly said, wiping her eyes.  So even if she hadn’t tried to make herself useful and pleasing to them, she would have been safe, at least because she was preferable to an unknown alternative.  That meant she hadn’t  _ needed _ to do anything she’d done since last night.  Greater than that relief, though, was the fact that this was the moment when she could be kicking herself, furious that she’d lowered herself that way for nothing, and she wasn’t.  She was still glad she’d done it, all of it, and knew she was going to do more.  Another sob burst out of her.

“Aw, baby,” said Jay, sounding worried.  “You’re safe with us, I promise.”

“I know.  I do.  I’m lucky.  I’m so lucky to have Gems like you who will give me another chance.  I’m only angry with myself because I wasted so much time hating being here and being mean to you and daydreaming that Blue Diamond would come and take me away to work at her right hand.  I’ve been stupid and you all deserved better.”  She sniffed back another sob and splashed bathwater over her face, trying to stop the crying and rinse away the tears.  She felt Sharky take her hands and move them from her face, scooting in to hug her and Jay together.  Once again she was enveloped by their strong arms and soft heavy breasts.

“I agree with you about most of that but nah, you’re not stupid.”

“Things are gonna be so much better now,” Jay murmured against her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Holly mumbled.  “For the way I treated you.”

“Thank you,” Jay said, and kissed her shoulder.  Sharky kissed her cheek.  No one said it was all right, but they held her tight until she had finished crying.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter includes some illustrations from my collaborator and fellow Holly enthusiast [molded-from-clay](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/post/160648430327/images-under-the-cut-more-so-i-had-this-idea) \- what happens is taken partly from a discussion with her which produced a series of pictures from her and, well, this chapter from me - and there's more to follow. Thank you, Moldy!

They soaked in the warm water a long time after Holly’s crying jag was over, even after she had been able to shift her body back to its previous state.  

“Don’t you have work to do?” she asked guiltily.  She was resting now face-down on Sharky’s belly, her head turned to one side and pillowed on a plump, firm breast.

“You telling us to go find something to do?” Jay asked, stroking Holly’s back as she sat on the side of the pool.

“No… but I don’t want you neglecting anything important because you’re being kind to me.”

“We’re not,” Sharky said.  “We’ve got it all figured out.  There’s always wiggle room in our plans.”

“And aren’t you bored?” Holly asked her.

“What, you think I’m all high energy all the time?  Fuck that, I like to lie around too.”

“Do  _ I _ not seem like the type to get bored?” Jay asked, scooping up a handful of water and trickling it over Holly’s shoulders.

“You seem… more patient,” Holly said thoughtfully.

“You are,” Sharky said.  “You’ll let human kids clamber all over you and go to sleep in your hair.”

“You let them clamber too.”

“No hair nesting, though.  Plus I present more of a challenge.  I buck around and growl and pounce, they’ve gotta  _ want _ to hang on.”

“Doesn’t that terrify them?” Holly asked.

“The more timid wussy ones don’t like it,” Sharky said, shrugging, “so I leave ‘em alone.  The more rough-and-tumble kids love it.  You should hear ‘em laughing.”

“She chases them around on all fours and growls and gnashes her teeth,” said Jay.  “She’s a big hit.”

“I do  _ not  _ understand humans,” Holly said, shaking her head.

“They’re not so different from us,” Jay said, pouring another handful of water down Holly’s spine.  “Well, check that, they’re super different from us physically, but we can find a lot of stuff in common when we talk to them.  Don’t think I didn’t notice, when I took you in the habitat before, you talked to them.  I mean, not much, but you didn’t put on that whole snobby ‘they just make funny noises, it’s not really talking’ act.”

“I was startled when that one with the flowers suggested  _ I _ couldn’t talk,” Holly admitted.  “I lowered my guard.”

“I was proud of you,” Jay said, pouring water.  “I know you weren’t comfortable or anything but you were nice.”

“Holly was nice?” Sharky asked with a teasing little smile.  “Was she feeling okay?”

“I can be nice,” Holly said, pouting.  “Even in ways that don’t involve sex.  I’ll have you know.”

“And we get to see it,” said Sharky.  She gently pressed on Holly’s nose with her fingertip.  “That oughtta be something.”

“I should do that with Chip, shouldn’t I?” Holly asked.  “Any  _ specific _ hints about what she’d like?”

“Kind of like being nice to humans, come to think of it,” said Jay.  “Keep your voice gentle, smile but don’t stare, and don’t make any big sudden moves.”

“Speaking of making a move,” said Sharky, “we should maybe get out of the bath sometime.”

“And prepare for tonight’s festivities?” Holly asked.

“What festivities?”

“Yeah, tonight’s a total rest night,” Jay said.

“Even we don’t fuck non-stop.  Last night was crazy!” Sharky said.  “Awesome but crazy.  You try to keep up that pace and you’ll burn out.”

“No one seemed concerned about  _ pace _ today,” Holly said, disconcerted.  Of course, she  _ knew _ they rested sometimes, she had spent enough time peevishly watching them loll around, but it had slipped her mind in the recent general whirl of debauchery.

“‘Cuz we knew we’d all be taking a break tonight.  Buuuut if you’re still horny I bet we can find  _ someone _ to service you,” Sharky said, squeezing Holly’s bottom.

“No need for that,” Holly mumbled.  The suggestion that there was something  _ excessive _ about her level of desire was a bit galling.

“It’s okay,” Sharky said, her voice coy and coaxing.  “I know how bad you need it.  You can tell Sharky.”

“Humph.”  Holly looked away.

“Just say, ‘Sharky, I need your fat purple cock pumping my juicy blue pussy all hours of the day and night.’”

“Who says I just need  _ your  _ cock, Cheeky?” Holly asked crisply.  That made Jay snort with smothered laughter.  Sharky blinked at her a moment and then grinned.  

“If you got too nice it’d make me nervous,” she said.  “Save it for lil’ Chippy.”

 

Chip was beginning to think she was labouring under some kind of jinx.  She was  _ never _ there when Morale Officer Holly appeared.  In the days since the big change, without ever intending to avoid her, while  _ longing _ to see her because she sounded absolutely spectacular, she’d always managed to leave a room shortly before she got there or arrive just after she’d left.  With the first type of miss she only heard about it later, which was annoying, but with the second type she’d walk in and find a bunch of Gems flopping around all flushed and sweaty with big dreamy smiles on their faces, which was unbelievably frustrating.

“Couldn’t you have kept her here a bit longer?” she’d wail, and they’d laugh ruefully and apologise and promise to try harder next time, but it never worked.  

“She  _ just _ left,” they’d say, “I’m amazed you didn’t see her on your way in!”

“Cheer up,” they’d say, “you can fuck her silly at the next gangbang.”

But she was always too shy to actually do it.  She hadn’t said, and she hoped no one had noticed, but she still hadn’t so much as touched Holly, even when she was staring at her avidly sucking one cock with another pumping in her right hand and the fingers of her left crammed in someone else’s pussy.  She masturbated furiously, she played with her friends while they watched together, but she was still in too much awe of her Agate to venture any further.  

Everyone had always made fun of how she was about Holly, but she found she couldn’t change the way she felt, either then when Holly had been grumpy and mean or now when, although she still sometimes got impatient or snippy, she was plainly trying to be as warm and nice as she could.  She would lie back and cradle someone with her body, moaning so sweetly while they fucked her, her voice shaking as it got more intense, and after they both came she would weakly nuzzle their nose and lips and whisper praise that only the Gem inside her could hear.  Of course you could do anything with Holly and people  _ did, _ but Chip thought the cock-in-pussy kind of fucking looked like it would be the most satisfying, tucked inside her soft, strong body.  She daydreamed about that and wondered if she’d ever have the courage to do something about it.  Probably not.  She’d never been one to put herself forward.

Holly was also trying to be nice in a more professional way, talking to people about their duties and giving them encouragement and telling them what they’d done well, which Chip knew she should be grateful for but gosh it made her nervous when Holly singled her out.  

“I heard you repaired that broken extractor fan, Chip, well done,” was the first instance; she had blushed magenta and mumbled a thank-you before scurrying off elsewhere.

“Congratulations on the health checks on Habitat 6, Chip; your charges are thriving,” was the second; she had done the same thing, and this time she thought she’d been rude because as she scurried she could hear Holly say “Wai —” and then stop and huff through her nose.  Old Holly would definitely have yelled at her.  The huff made her feel bad enough.

While she was working in the big laundry room sorting out the bundles of clean pressed clothes for each habitat Sharky had come swaggering in and slung an arm around her shoulder.

“So Chip,” she said.  “Chip Chip Chippy-chip.  How’s it going?”

“Fine, thanks,” Chip said.  She liked Sharky, she liked everyone really, but they weren’t special friends so she wasn’t sure what had brought this chumminess on.  

“A word to the wise,” said Sharky.  “Modesty is great but sometimes when people wanna praise you, you should just let ‘em.”

“Okay,” said Chip hesitantly.

“Great!” said Sharky, slapped her on the butt and strode off without further explanation.

Later on when she was taking a break and leaning with her elbows on a porthole windowsill, gazing idly out at the stars, she suddenly felt two hands on her back and turned in surprise to find both Sharky and Jay smiling at her.  Nor would she have numbered Jay among her special friends.  There was nothing nasty or mean about it, but Skinny was right when she said the Prime Amethysts were cliquey, even to the extent that she, who wasn’t quite an Amethyst but only a Raspberry Quartz  _ tinged _ with amethyst, felt that she didn’t exactly belong with the classic beauties like Jay and the classic bruisers like Sharky.  It was easier to be close with the Betas; no one really noticed your off colour or your funny tooth when they were a funny shape themselves.

“Hey Chip,” said Jay, “I just wanted to check in with you that you got what Sharky was trying to say to you.”

“She got it, I was very clear,” said Sharky.

“She said modesty is great but sometimes when people wanna praise you, you should just let ‘em,” Chip repeated dutifully, “and then she told me  _ I  _ was great, so I just let her.  I… wasn’t really sure what that was all about.  The ass slap was nice though.  Tingly.”

“You see,” said Jay, more to Sharky than to her.  

“I was trying to be subtle,” said Sharky.  “Clear yet subtle.  I admit subtlety is not my forte.”

“She wasn’t talking about  _ herself _ praising you, she meant Holly Blue,” Jay said.  “She’s been trying to be nice to you, but you always dash off.”

“I get shy,” Chip mumbled.  “You know how I feel about her.  I don’t want to disappoint her.”

“But she  _ is  _ disappointed that she doesn’t get a chance to talk to you and spend time with you.  It’s not like before when she’d always find fault.  Even if you’re nervous, can you try to stick around and let her finish?”

“It could be worth your while,” said Sharky, grinning.  Jay elbowed her.

“You two are really good friends now, aren’t you?” Chip asked.  They looked a little startled.  “I just mean that you were never  _ special _ friends before,” she added.  “But it seems like now you are.  Is it because of Holly?”

They exchanged glances, and Sharky scratched her head.  Jay twisted her curl around her finger.  “Yeah, I guess so,” she said.

“Guess if you spend enough time fucking the same person together, something’s gotta rub off,” said Sharky.  They glanced at each other again and Chip almost thought they were blushing slightly.

“It must be so nice to be her favourites,” she said.

“Don’t say that,” Jay protested.  “Holly doesn’t play favourites.”

“No, I’m really happy for you!  It’s okay.  I don’t gossip or anything,” Chip said earnestly.

“Yeah, but… Rule Two,” Jay said, jerking her head over at one of the posters on the wall.

“I’m sure it’s okay,” Chip said, trying to laugh but feeling guilty.  She was breaking Rule One herself.

“Don’t be such a goody-two-shoes, special friend,” said Sharky, chuckling.  Jay poked her tongue out at her.  “My soulmate from another hole-mate,” Sharky added, waggling her eyebrows.  Jay laughed and shoved her and they were play-fighting when Chip excused herself and crept away.

She was still wondering a bit why those two felt they’d needed to intervene that way when Holly accosted her in the hallway near the hangar.  There was no one else around and no easy way to retreat.  She was going to have to tamp down her nerves and try not to say or do anything really dumb.

“Chip!” Holly said brightly.  “I’m so glad I found you, I’ve been wanting to speak to you.”

“I’m sorry,” Chip said reflexively.

Holly’s brows furrowed and she looked a little irritated.  “For what?” she asked.

“Being… difficult to find?” 

“Oh, don’t worry about that.  Let’s just talk a little, shall we?”  She smiled.  She was so cute when she smiled it was almost unreal, and Chip felt a little disrespectful just thinking she was cute rather than only beautiful and elegant and sexy, but the way the apples of her cheeks rose and her eyes twinkled at the corners was just adorable.

“Um, yes,” she said.  “Um, is there a problem?”

“No.  No, there’s no problem at all.  I want you to know how well you’re doing, that’s all.  You’re so hard-working and reliable, and you should know you’ve been mentioned by your peers as deserving more recognition for your efforts.  Everyone thinks very highly of you, Chip.”

“Oh.”  The magenta blush was back, and her tummy felt all warm and fluttery.  She’d never felt  _ un _ recognised, and the thought that other people were telling Holly she deserved more seemed funny and odd, but still, there was that smile.  “Thank you!”

“So, um…”  Her own hesitation seemed to be catching; Holly looked unsure how to proceed.  “We never seem to be in the same place at the same time when I’m  _ showing my appreciation,  _ do we?”

“Oh, uh, sorry, you see the thing is I tend to work as kind of a runner, like I take messages or fetch parts or whatever, so I don’t stay in one place long a lot of the time.”

“Are you carrying a message or fetching something right now?” Holly asked.

“No,” Chip said and looked at her feet.  There was a pause; she glanced up briefly and saw Holly considering her with her arms tucked behind her back in that way of hers.  She raised one hand to her chin thoughtfully, tapping beside it with her forefinger.  It made a little soft dent in her cheek just by the corner of her mouth and now Chip  _ knew _ she was staring at Holly’s lips, so full and soft and just a little glossy.  “Is there anything I could do for you?” she asked with a touch of desperation.

“There  _ is,” _  Holly said, and turned her back on Chip.  “I don’t know what it is but I get this little tight achy place between my shoulderblades.  Do you think you could rub it out for me?”  She gestured over her shoulder to the area she meant.

“Oh!  Yeah, of course I can.”  She still felt all fluttery with nervous excitement about being invited to touch Holly but as far as massage was concerned she knew what she was doing.  She put her hands lightly on Holly’s shoulders to feel where the tension was.  “If anything hurts tell me, okay?”

“Thank you,” Holly said with a sigh; she sounded relieved.  As Chip began she gave a low, soft moan.

“Is that okay?” Chip asked, surprised.  She hadn’t done much yet, was keeping her touch light on purpose.

“Oh, yes.”

Chip started again with a little more confidence, but her confusion grew as Holly kept making little sounds.  They weren’t as loud and exuberant as her moans during sex but they were the same sort of tone.  Chip knew she was  _ good _ at massages and she absolutely knew how to segue from soothing tired muscles to getting someone off very comfortably, but in her experience you didn’t get this kind of reaction to working the upper back and shoulders.  Her face flushed hot and she felt the heat travel down and into her breasts, pricking up her nipples.  And Holly kept arching her  _ lower _ back and pushing her broad, plush bottom against Chip’s lap.  If it could still be called your lap when you were standing.  She wasn’t sure about that.  She  _ was _ sure that the constant nudging from Holly’s sumptuous ass was giving her a bulging erection, held up against her belly by the snug fabric of her uniform.  The temptation to rub it up and down in the cleft between Holly’s buttocks was absolutely terrible.

She bit her lip and tried to angle her own hips back and away from contact while still being close enough to work Holly’s shoulders properly.  It put her off balance a little and she needed to step back a bit, which made Holly step back and returned her to the original problem.  She tried to shuffle back without bringing Holly with her and failed; she just followed.  Chip made one last desperate effort to put some space between them and her back hit the wall behind her and half a second later Holly’s bottom was right in her lap, pressing up to her all pillowy and velvety and warm and for a frantic moment she thought she might actually come right then and there, just ejaculate straight through her suit and splatter Holly’s back.  

The moment passed but her dick was still throbbing and Holly was still moaning as Chip made increasingly clumsy attempts to massage her back.  It really did feel like there was habitual tension between her shoulderblades and she honestly wanted to knead it out and make her comfortable and maybe if she could just really concentrate on that all the rest of it somehow wouldn’t be happening.

Holly rolled her hips slowly and her soft buttocks squished against Chip’s body and she felt her eyes roll up.  She was just getting herself back under control when Holly looked back over her shoulder and said, sounding a little peeved but also a little concerned, “Do you not want this at all?  If it’s just  _ bothering _ you goodness knows I don’t want to go on.”

“I, ah, I, um, ff —”   _ Oh my stars don’t swear at her what are you trying to do make this worse from  _ every _ angle?   _ Holly was peering at her and she had to try to come up with an answer.  “I’m really sorry!”

“What  _ for?   _ Is  _ that _ thing just an involuntary reaction and you  _ don’t _ actually want to fuck me?”

“You don’t want  _ me _ to fuck you!” Chip blurted out, astonished.  Now Holly just looked baffled.

“Why do you think  _ that? _  I — I realise I’ve said some unkind things to you in the past but I don’t ever remember one of them being ‘I specifically do not want  _ you _ to fuck me.’”

“Bu — uh —”  Chip felt a moment of intense mental relief and intense physical disappointment  as Holly pulled away from her and turned round to face her, folding her arms under her bust.  She looked mad.  She also looked… actually pretty horny, with her cheeks all flushed and her eyes dark and her lips, oh stars she just licked her lips, just pushing her tongue out briefly between them and back in but now they were all shiny wet.

“Just tell me why you think I don’t want you, and you alone out of all the Quartzes on this station, to fuck me,” Holly insisted.  “In the face of  _ all _ the evidence, why.”

“I, um, well, I mean obviously if it was everyone together I, uh, I could join in but I — I just didn’t think you’d ever pick  _ me _ by myself!”  It was so hard to explain something that seemed so obvious, especially with a boner that was now leaking precome through her pants.  “I just thought you thought I was too… too dumb and couldn’t do anything right.”  The last words were a small unhappy mumble.

Holly’s face fell and she looked away for a moment, her hand on her chin again covering her mouth.  Chip was pretty sure then that she was just going to leave and it would be over and that would be awful but also at least it would be  _ over, _ but she lowered her hand and looked her in the eye again.

“I’m so sorry that I’ve made you feel that way,” she said.  “I was much too hard on you and you didn’t deserve it.  Please believe me about that.”

“It’s okay,” Chip mumbled.

“It’s not,” Holly said, shaking her head.  “Stars know I’m not good at apologies, I feel so defensive and angry when I’m in the wrong and just want to run away, but I really do feel — I feel very sorry, I regret it when I see how it’s made  _ you _ feel.”  She glanced down at Chip’s extremely persistent erection and added, “You obviously have  _ mixed _ feelings.”

Chip gave a startled, embarrassed blurt of laughter that she smushed down as fast as she could with her hand over her mouth, but Holly was smiling at her, Holly was  _ smiling _ and  _ at her.  _

“Do you think,” Holly said slowly, “that I could begin making it up to you by helping you with  _ those _ feelings?”  She shifted her gaze downward; the smile was still there.  “I’d enjoy that.  Would you?”

“If — if you’d  _ enjoy _ it, then yes.”

“I really would.  I understand now why you’ve been avoiding me, but that means I’ve been missing out on something quite lovely.”  She reached out and traced one fingertip up the underside of Chip’s cock, sending a pleasurable shiver through her.  Holly looked into her eyes again and held that contact as she sank to her knees in front of Chip, resting her hands lightly on her knees and smoothing them up over her thighs to her hips.

_ Ohmystarsohmystarsohmystars.   _ Chip bit her lip again, harder, and braced herself against the wall.

“Is this good?” Holly asked, very delicately putting out her tongue and lapping with a pointed tip at the wet patch covering the head of Chip’s cock.  Chip made a kind of incoherent hissing sizzling sound.  “How do you like your clothes to come off?” Holly asked.  “Just disappearing?  Or peeling off, or tearing off?”

“Um, like — if they can —”  Chip managed to make the necessary mental adjustment and separated the top and the bottom of her uniform from each other.  “You — you can pull my pants down.”

“Thank you.”  Holly drew them down slowly, so the fabric dragged softly over Chip’s ruddy skin and made her cock quiver and bob until it sprang free and stood there swaying as she panted.  “How beautiful,” Holly said.  “Since I’ve expanded my horizons a bit, I find I have a much greater appreciation for a  _ unique _ colour like yours.”  Gazing steadily up at Chip, she opened her mouth and slowly drew the soft flat of her tongue over the underside of her cock from base to head.  The tip of her tongue flicked off the glans and she gave a soft, sucking kiss to the tip of it.  “And I’ve got to love seeing how each of you shapes herself, all these lovely variations and combinations of labia, clits, cocks, balls, big or small, thick or thin, sheathed or bare, smooth or textured… you get  _ very _ imaginative with textures.  And some of you have your favourites that you always wear, and some change and change about.  Which are you, sweetie?”

_ If I answer maybe she’ll stop talking and put her mouth on it again.   _ “F-favourite,” she stammered, “I love my cock.”

“I’m sure your friends do too,” Holly said, and licked it again.  She cupped her hand under Chip’s balls, in a small plump sac that she had started forming just because she thought it looked so cute and roly-poly.  She’d actually been going for a sort of cute roly-poly look for the whole thing and she both wanted to ask Holly if she liked that and was embarrassed to say anything about it, and anyway Holly was rolling her tongue around the head of it, her gaze dropping in concentration, her dark lashes fanning out, so pretty, so pretty.  In her mouth now, she was sucking, her plump lips felt even better than they looked, she was looking up at her again, her eyebrows gently raised.  

“That’s so good!” Chip gasped.  “That’s perfect, that’s… oh  _ fuck  _ yes.”  Without quite thinking about it, she’d clapped her hands to her breasts, squeezing and rubbing, pinching one nipple as it popped free of the V neck of her top.  Holly’s eyes looked a little amused, and maybe she did look funny groping herself like this, but it felt too good not to.  And Holly was humming softly around her dick, stroking with her tongue as she sucked, rocking her head back and forth.  Her eyes fluttered closed and she gave another of her little moans.  

It was one of the things everyone talked about, how much Holly loved giving head, how excited she got doing it, how she’d end up nuzzling nearly her whole face into some lucky pussy or literally swallowing some fortunate cock.  Chip had seen a bit of it and couldn’t believe how hot it was and that was before she’d seen it while feeling it happening to her.  Holly’s cheeks were deeply flushed and her lips were puffy and shining and her eyebrows were crumpled together almost pleadingly and she was moaning again.  Her mouth was so  _ wet  _ and the suction and stroking were so luscious, it seemed rude to lose control so quickly but Chip had no choice in the matter, she was coming helplessly and bubbles and trickles of slippery white were escaping the corners of Holly’s mouth, running down her neck.

Chip rocked her head back against the wall, closing her eyes and pulling in deep, gasping breaths as the pleasure subsided from that fierce unsustainable peak to a deep, warm, comfortable glow.  Holly was still very softly sucking, slowing the movement of her head, and Chip felt her jaw work as she swallowed, gulping.  

_ I just came in Holly Blue Agate’s mouth and she swallowed my come.   _ It had just happened but it still sounded impossible.  She looked down to reassure herself that it was really happening exactly like that.  Holly was just drawing back, her mouth opening a little wider as Chip’s wet shaft slipped from her lips, and a long gooey strand stretched from the slit in her glans to Holly’s tongue until it broke and slapped half against Chip’s cock, half down Holly’s chin.  Holly sat back on her heels and looked up at her, breathing heavily, her eyes hazy and her lips still parted.

“Good?” she asked, her voice thick and husky.

“Oh, Holly,” Chip breathed.  She’d hardly ever called her that and she knew it was going to be difficult to stop.  “Oh Holly, here.”  She crouched down and used the hem of Holly’s little cape to wipe her chin.  “Thank you.  I’m sorry I just went off like that.   _ Thank _ you.  How can I — what can I do for  _ you?” _

“First,” Holly said, “no apologies out of you.  And why do you taste so nice?  I’d  _ heard _ that about you but I thought they were exaggerating.”

“I don’t know, that’s just how it comes out,” Chip admitted.  It was her minor claim to fame; most Quartzes’ spunk was nothing to write Homeworld about, but not objectionable, while hers for whatever reason had a flavour most people seemed to like, sort of milky and fruity at the same time.

“I’d been wondering if I’d had you but not quite registered it was you, you know how it gets towards the end of an orgy, but I would absolutely remember that no matter how much of a dream I was in.  Oh my.”  Holly gave a breathless little giggle and touched her lips, perhaps to feel if they were clean.  “And second, would you like to see my room?  I would  _ love _ to show you.”

_ “Yes,” _ Chip said, before she could lose her nerve.

“Help me up, then.”  Chip took Holly’s hands and hauled her to her feet, then let go to pull her pants back up from where they’d slid around her knees.  She was going to try to join her clothes together again but Holly grabbed her right hand and pulled her away from the wall so she just clutched a handful at waist height with her left and followed her as quick as she could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor clarification: Moldy was not sure if she'd missed or I'd forgotten to write when Holly's clothes came off, since she's naked in the drawings during the blowjob part. This is just a minor difference in approach to the same material, since at this stage I wanted Chip to be very focused on Holly's face and if she could see titties at the same time that would be quite a distraction.   
> There will be titties later obviously. I promise you titties.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for Moldy, whose encouragement and patience are equally appreciated. Not to mention illustrations! Visit [molded-from-clay.tumblr.com](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com) for a metric fuckload of fine Fameblue art.  
> A very important thing I should mention before we begin: _Holly's asshole is not hooked up to anything._ It is as pristine as a newly-bloomed edelweiss after a shower of spring rain. Where human butts are concerned, anything that penetrates the anus _must_ be thoroughly cleaned (or disposed of and replaced with a fresh one in the case of condoms) before penetrating the vagina. This fic is not sex ed (oh thank God) but sometimes I feel I just have to drop in a caveat.  
>  In an earlier version of this chapter Chip had a magic shapeshifting dick with no refractory period post-orgasm but I ended up rewriting it because honestly, her hair trigger is so much cuter.

Chip had often tried to imagine what Holly’s private room must be like, so as the door opened and Holly pulled her in she tried to take in everything at once.  Directly in front of them but farthest away against the wall was the big desk, in front of a picture window giving a view of space.  That view was partly obscured by the screen projections in the air in front of the desk showing various security feeds and streams of information.  Holly had left some big genealogical charts open; Chip couldn’t read them backwards but the tree structure of them was immediately familiar.

Over to the right and near at hand she could see Holly’s dressing table and mirror, and then further along the curve of that right-hand wall was a big, round, cushiony bed covered with a silky blue sheet and scattered with pillows in co-ordinating shades of pink and violet.  There was a sort of hoop hanging from the ceiling above it and from that hung a long, shimmery, almost transparent curtain, gathered back around the head of the bed now but able to be pulled around to surround it.

She only dragged her eyes away from that because she didn’t want to get caught by surprise by anything she didn’t know was there and look foolish to Holly as a result.  Nearest them on the left wall and giving her a nasty fright for a moment was a large painting of Blue Diamond, resting her head on her hand against a broken obelisk and looking nobly sorrowful.  At least, she probably looked nobly sorrowful because that was how Blue Diamond generally looked in portraits, but you couldn’t actually see on this one because someone had hung a scarf or shawl or something from the top of the frame so it covered her face.

Holly noticed her looking.  “It got a little bit embarrassing and inhibiting,” she said, “so we decided what she couldn’t see wouldn’t hurt her, so to speak.  I’ve been making improvements — you see there?”  She pointed further along that wall to where a half-moon basin with a faucet above it had been installed against the wall.  “Ellie just finished plumbing that in yesterday, to make freshening up easier.  Sometimes it’s more comfortable than going all the way down to the bathroom for a more thorough clean.  Do you like it?  The whole place, I mean.  Not just the plumbing.”

“It’s beautiful,” Chip said.  “It’s all so soft and pretty.  It’s — it’s like you,” she added gallantly.  

“You are a darling,” Holly said, and put her hands to Chip’s cheeks and kissed her forehead.  “Now wait there.”  She walked away to the middle of the floor of the big room, her top and pants shimmering away as she moved.  Her little cape was still around her shoulders but Chip had an unrivalled view of her bare, silky bottom rolling and bouncing a little way above the tops of her tall white boots.  Her cock twitched, reactivated with a jolt.  Those two little dimples either side of Holly’s spine just above her buttocks were so gorgeous.

Holly stopped and slowly turned in place, her hands held daintily out at her sides.  “This is the morale officer’s uniform that I don’t think you’ve seen, since I kept just missing you,” she said.  “So to remedy that, you get a private showing.  I hope you like it.”  She struck a little pose with her hands on her hips and then gave a self-deprecating laugh.  “Of course you’ve seen the whole package, everyone has.”

“But I’ve never seen it _just for me,”_ Chip said earnestly.  “It’s different when you mean it just for me.”  She couldn’t see Holly’s breasts, apart from their bottom curves, but she had the full view of her tummy, her hips, her thighs, all so plush and curvaceous and bare, and the thick puff of curly hair covering her mound, soft mauve with a few strands of deeper mauve and ice-blue.  Holly’s multicoloured hair had always fascinated Chip, just another thing that made her seem rare and special.  Maybe that wasn’t rare and special for an Agate but Chip had personally known only two and never thought about Shadow Agate any more if she could help it.  In this situation it would have been hard to keep her in mind if she’d _tried._

Her saying that seemed to really please Holly; that glowing smile bloomed on her face again, and she gave her one more twirl before walking over to the bed and sitting down at the foot of it.  She unfastened her little cape and laid it aside, uncovering her lovely full breasts, and leaned back on her hands, crossing her legs and lifting her foot towards Chip.  “Come here and help me off with these, please,” she said.

Chip went to her eagerly and knelt at her feet, gazing up at her.  Having Holly looking up at her was thrilling and unbelievably hot but it rattled her too; looking up at _her_ felt right and sweet.  She took Holly’s white-booted foot in her hands and carefully eased the boot loose from her heel, drawing it down her leg until she could drop it on the floor.  She held Holly’s soft, bare foot in her hands and bent down to press a kiss on the instep.  Holly uncrossed her legs and offered her the other foot, and she removed that boot too, held and kissed that foot.  

Holly lifted her foot from Chip’s hands and parted her thighs, sitting up straighter and reaching out to stroke her hair.  “How would you like to touch me?” she asked.  “I’m inviting you to do anything you want.”

For a moment Chip’s mind went blank; there were just too many wants at once.  She had to take a deep breath and let it out slowly while they all settled.  Holly was still stroking her hair, brushing the shaggy fringe back from her forehead.  It felt so shivery good to be touched that gently.  Holly’s hands were so smooth and soft, never roughed up from manual work.  Her own were in pretty good shape today, she didn’t need to worry that they would feel scratchy or rough on Holly’s skin.  

“Okay,” she said, rising up on her knees, placing her hands on Holly’s knees, sliding them up over her thighs to her hips.   _Shit, I’m really doing this,_ she thought, and felt a big foolish grin growing on her face.  Her funny tooth would be showing, but Holly was still looking at her invitingly.  With her hands on Holly’s hips, her thumbs circling and stroking the soft bulge of her lower tummy, she shuffled in between Holly’s knees and kissed the tip of one plump breast.  Holly’s nipple tightened as she swept her tongue over it and she gave a faint little murmur.  Chip quickly cast her eyes up to her face.

“You look so very sweet doing that,” Holly said, her voice low.  “And you know what I like, don’t you?  You’ve been watching.”

“I’m sorry,” Chip mumbled.

“Why?   _I_ had to watch for a while before I was ready to join in.”  Holly glanced away to the screen of her desk and back to Chip’s face.  

 _“Oh,”_ said Chip.  Somehow that freed her up a lot.  She nuzzled in eagerly, sucking Holly’s large nipple into her mouth, swirling her tongue against it.  The bud of her nipple was thick and hard and easy to flick and rock back and forth in the puffy pillow of the areola, and she could feel it swelling as she sucked it.  Holly closed her eyes and one of those lovely moans rose out of her.  Chip hummed in response and slid her hands up and down, caressing Holly’s belly and sucking her deeper until she let the swollen nipple slip from her lips, pausing a moment just to admire it.  Holly was breathing heavily, her breasts rising and falling hypnotically.

“I _hope_ you’re not planning to leave the job half done,” Holly said, and her voice was a funny mingling of husky desire and good old Holly snippiness.

“I promise not to,” said Chip, turning her attention to the other breast, suckling avidly.  

Holly gasped, clutching at Chip’s hair, pressing up to her mouth.  Her legs were either side of Chip’s body; Chip felt them wrap around her, her feet resting on her bottom, and pull her in.  Chip slid her hands around to Holly’s back, stroking up and down, pressing firmly and feeling how she yielded.

“Lower me back,” Holly breathed, “lie me down, yes, just like that, sweet little Chip…”  She lay on the silky sheet, her hands twitching, arching her back as Chip kissed her way down over her belly, sucking little pinches of soft fat and velvet skin, her mouth watering, reaching the lush curls of her mound and nuzzling there.

“That’s it, that’s right,” Holly was whimpering, “oh please…”

Chip was kneeling again, her hands on Holly’s plump thighs, pressing them apart, panting as she gazed at her flushed, wet pussy, having another moment when she just had to stop and think, _This is really happening now, Holly’s spread puss right in front of me._ With her thumbs she parted the outer lips and she saw the slick deep blue within, and her awe melted away and she dove in to lick.  Holly grunted and pushed her hips up to her tongue, grinding her swollen clitoris against it.

“Ahn?”  Chip made a questioning sound, flicking with her tongue-tip.

“Yes, yes, please, I need it so badly!”  Holly gave a stifled squeal as Chip tried rapidly fluttering her tongue against it, her moans climbing scales as she increased the pressure.  “Put your fingers inside me, put your fingers inside me, oh yes, yes, please Chip, please!”

“‘ike ‘is?”  It wasn’t easy to pump her fingers just under her chin while she kept working with her tongue, but she could feel the tension in Holly’s body, the way her cunt clutched at her fingers, could hear her cries climbing into high-pitched wordless gasps until her hips were plunging up and down and she half screamed with her climax.  Holly lay quivering, gripping a handful of Chip’s hair.  After a long moment her fingers loosened and Chip could lift her head.  

She got up onto the bed and crawled over Holly’s body, kneeling astride her, reaching out to brush away the curling hair that clung to her sweat-damp cheeks and forehead.  “Are you okay?” Chip asked, pretty sure what the answer would be.

“Oh,” Holly sighed, smiling giddily.  “Oh yes.”  She pressed her hands to Chip’s cheeks and kissed her mouth, passed one hand down over her chest and found she was still wearing her uniform top.  She hooked her forefinger in the notch of the V neck and tugged.  “Do take this off.  I don’t want things in between us.”

“Right!”  Chip sat up and dragged the top off over her head, threw it away and shook back her hair so she could see.  Now she had Holly gazing up at her again, flushed and dishevelled with spiral curls escaping from her buns, sweeping her gaze from Chip’s breasts down to her cock, jutting out of the pants that had rolled down around her hips.

“I think now,” Holly said, “I really do need to feel that beautiful thing inside me.  Let me get up a moment?”  Chip quickly lifted her weight from Holly’s legs, and she hitched herself backward a bit, then rolled over to her hands and knees and crawled towards the head of the bed.  Chip scrambled to follow her and grabbed her hips, and gave into her earlier impulse to slide her cock up and down in the cushiony cleft of her ass.  Holly gave a little gasp and then giggled.  “You’re so eager,” she said, pushing her bottom back and giving it a swivel.  “All right, let’s do it like this.”

“Oh!  Did you not mean…”  She’d thought Holly was just getting into position, _inviting_ her to enter from behind.

“Don’t you worry.  Does that feel nice?  Are you enjoying my derrière?”  She settled onto her elbows, looking back over her shoulder.

“Oh _stars_ yes.”  Her fingers were sinking into Holly’s soft buttocks, and she pressed them together around her shaft, moaning at the warm squeeze.

“It feels better inside.  I’ve heard _very_ nice things about how it feels inside.”

“In your ass?  Do you want me to?”  She pulled back and looked down between Holly’s buttocks to the pouting pucker of her anus and the damp curls and flaring lips of her pussy.

“The choice is yours,” Holly murmured, rocking her hips.  “And it’s only a choice about what to do _first.”_

 _Oh stars, I really do want to fuck her in the ass._ She licked her thumb and rubbed the opening, feeling it flicker and yield, and Holly made a faint little mewling sound.  “Does this feel good?”

“The thing about my anus,” Holly said, and her breathing sounded a little fluttery, “is that it’s so very sensitive.  What I feel there is… do you know the feeling, it’s _not_ pain, it’s a very intense pleasure with a constant awareness that pain _could come_ that makes it thrilling?”

“Wait, do you get pain from that?” Chip asked, a little worried.  She’d never felt comfortable about hurting people with her dick, even when they said they liked it or _asked_ for it.  “I mean I know about the biting and the hair-pulling and everything, I know they hurt in a way you like, but in your tushie?”   _Oh shit did I just say_ tushie?  

“Oh.  Sometimes in the wrong position,” Holly said.  “Keep rubbing it, please, I like that.  I was worried at first about something too _thick_ hurting me but experience showed that wasn’t really a problem.  Ooh… that’s lovely.  It’s the position.  If my weight is on… _on_ my bottom the… the _pressure_ hurts.  As long as I’m supported… oh, or like this, this is wonderful, I can just enjoy feeling it slide in and out, _so_ hard and thick and warm, rubbing me so — oh… please don’t tease me, _please_ fuck me.”  She looked back over her shoulder at Chip, her lips trembling and her eyes beseeching.

“Of course I will!”  Chip fumbled, slipped her thumb out of the snug slick ring, gripped her cock and pushed it in deep, into silky, squeezing heat.  Holly made a wonderful sound, a kind of singing groan, and for a few moments she chouldn’t move and just leaned on Holly’s ass panting in mindless happiness.   _I’m balls deep in Holly Blue Agate.  Her asshole is all twitchy.  This is all real and not a fantasy or a dream._ “Your ass is so _squish,”_ she blurted out.  She heard a soft little chuckle from Holly, felt it through her body, too, she loved so much how you could almost feel what someone _felt_ like this.

 _I should try to do what she likes, she loves how Sharky talks all filthy to her while she does this._ “You — you like this,” she tried.  That was easy, that was obvious, Holly was moaning and undulating her ass against her.  “You like this, you love it, you — you’re so needy and — and your butt, um…”   _This ain’t working._  Oh, but it felt so good, spreading her fingers over Holly’s cushiony buttocks, digging them into the softness, pressing them together around her shaft, no _wonder_ Sharky was so greedy for this, how did she think of things to _say_ at the same time?  “Holly?”

“Hmmm?”  Every sound Holly made was getting Chip hotter; how did she  _ do _ that with her voice?

“Can I thrust a bit harder?  I don’t want to hurt you but —”

“I think you’ll find I can handle more than you think.  Sharky fucks like a piledriver once she gets going.”

_ Oh stars she is comparing me to Sharky.  I have to try.   _ “I — I’ll drive your pile all right.”

“Um — Chip?”  Holly was twisting to look back over her shoulder.  Her face still had that gorgeous flush but she looked confused.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know,” Chip admitted, crestfallen.  “I’m sorry.  I was just trying to be… badass and dirty for you, like you like…”

“Ah.”  Holly gave a little puff of laughter but she looked relieved.  “There’s no need for that.  If I wanted Sharky I’d go and  _ find _  Sharky.  I want  _ you.   _ You should just say things  _ you _ want to say.  Or if you don’t want to say anything, just grunt and growl, that’s fine too.  All of this,” she screwed her hips back against Chip’s for emphasis, “is  _ for you,  _ so do it the way that feels best for you.”

“Oh… then…”  The permission not to talk felt freeing too.  She bent lower over Holly’s back and tried again, pumping her hips in short, steady strokes. 

“Oh yes,” Holly breathed as Chip deepened her stroke, her pace quickening.  Her thighs clapped against Holly’s soft bottom, getting faster as Holly’s moans rose, her voice shaking, oh, she was making her voice _shake,_ finally it was _her_ doing that.   

“Holly, Holly, my Holly, my Holly!”  She was babbling and peaking and swiftly, joyfully, greedily coming, still thrusting through the early pulses until she ground in as deep as she could and held it, gasping, as the huge, overwhelming pleasure rolled through her.  Chip slumped over Holly’s back with a sigh.

After a moment she managed to push herself off and roll to lie beside her while Holly lowered herself onto her belly, breathing out in a great gusty puff.

“I’m sorry,” Chip murmured.

“What for?”  Holly turned her head to rest her cheek on her hand, gazing at her with dark, wide eyes.

“That was… that was pretty selfish.  You didn’t get to come.”

“Rubbish.  You didn’t get to come when you brought me off so beautifully with your tongue and your fingers.”

“But that was to even us up from when you went down on me out in the hall,” Chip protested.

“It’s in my interest to keep the numbers odd, then, isn’t it?” Holly asked with a little smirk, her eyes twinkling.  “If it makes you keep evening them up.”

“Do you, um, do you want to do this a  _ lot?   _ With  _ me _ a lot?”

“Yes.”  Holly reached out and stroked Chip’s cheek with curled fingers.  “Oh yes, darling, very definitely.”

Chip felt her face split into a grin wide enough to make her cheeks ache, and she threw her arms around Holly.  “Yay!”

“Yay,” Holly repeated with a giggle.  “Oh, I do enjoy your exuberance.”

“Yeah, you can enjoy it again in a few minutes,” Chip said, feeling daring.  It was feeling real now, still absolutely amazing but properly real.  Holly was beside her, all flushed and tumbled and just for her, her lovely large strong body charged with desire.  She kissed Chip, her lips plump and thick, gliding her tongue along the hard edges of Chip’s teeth and then over the softness of her tongue.  Chip responded eagerly, murmuring her pleasure as Holly combed her fingers into her hair, lightly scratching her scalp.  Holly’s breasts were pressed to hers, rubbing as their breathing rose and fell, as they arched and twined together.  

Chip rolled back, pulling Holly on top of her, loving the warmth and weight of her body, revelling in long, slow kisses as passion swelled up again.  She was rocking her hips, rubbing her stiffening cock against Holly’s plush tummy.  

“Do you want some more?” Holly whispered.

_ “Yes.” _

“Hold still,” she said, straddling Chip’s hips, grasping her shaft and cramming herself down on it in one impatient movement.  Then she sat motionless, hands braced on Chip’s belly, her head rocked back and her lips parted in ecstasy.

_ “That _ is where I need it,” Holly said after a long moment.   _ “Oh  _ yes.”  She lifted herself slightly on her knees, up and back down, her pussy enveloping Chip snugly, her eyelids fluttering slightly, dreamily.  “They’ve been teaching me,” she said slowly, “to ride… and oh, it’s paying off…  Does that feel good?”  She opened her eyes, gazing down at Chip as she steadily rode her up and down.

_ “Holly,” _ Chip murmured.  She couldn’t take her eyes off the join between them, how her thick red shaft disappeared between plump blue labia, how they stretched and squished around it, how firmly and deliberately Holly moved her hips.  She raised shaking hands to rest on Holly’s broad, velvety thighs, felt the strength in them, passed them up over her hips and in to stroke her soft belly.  Holly moaned softly but insistently and leaned into her hands, catching her full lower lip under her teeth.  Chip arched up into her, revelling in the slip and suck of Holly’s cunt, gripping her thighs again with a gasp of joy.  “Oh,  _ Holly!” _

__

It was wonderful but it was over far too soon; she was shaking, panting and disappointed in herself.  Holly was breathing hard, feeling her turn soft, looking surprised.

“I’m so sorry!” Chip blurted out.  “You just felt so good!”

“Oh!  Oh, well, that’s all right.  That’s flattering,” Holly said, with an attempt at a smile, but she was clearly a touch frustrated.  No one who’d been moving the way she was could be perfectly okay with such a sudden stop.

“I’m sorry,” Chip moaned.  “I’m so useless.”  

“You are not!  None of that.”  Holly stayed mounted but bent forward to kiss her.  

“I wanted to be  _ good.”   _ She knew she had a hair trigger but she’d come  _ twice _ already; it should have been easier to hold on.

“You  _ are _ good.  Do you know how good it feels, right now, to have you inside me?  So warm, I’m so full, your sweet, thick come dammed up inside me.  And I know you’ll just need a few minutes.”  Another soft, heavy kiss.

“What if I just blow it again?”

“You won’t.  We’ll just do what Gee likes me to do.  Have you seen that?  She enjoys drawing it out for a long time.  So we’ll go until she’s on the verge and then she’ll tell me ‘I’m there’ and we’ll both hold still and breathe together and count down until the intensity subsides, and then start again, slowly.”  She kissed Chip again, sucking her lower lip a long moment before releasing it.  “Do you think you can do that with me, sweetie?”

“Yes,” Chip breathed.  Holly could have asked her to jump out the window into space and she would have said the same, but oh, the feeling of Holly coaxing and coaching her along was bliss.  

“Then let’s just enjoy being close like this, and wait till we feel you getting lovely and big and hard again.  Hmm?”  Holly sat up and stretched, lacing her hands together and straightening her arms above her head.  Her back arched, her heavy breasts jutted out, and she looked so beautiful and so sensuously contented that Chip’s cock gave a little twitch.  Holly lowered her arms and smoothed her hands over Chip’s belly and up to her breasts, cupping them together.  “Such sweet little chubby bosoms.  And your nipples are shy, aren’t they?  Like you.”

“Um.  I don’t know why they’re like that, they just always start out, you know, or they go back to — they kind of hide and, um…”  Chip caught her lip under her teeth, staring at Holly’s hands massaging her breasts, gently squeezing her nipples between fingers and thumbs and rolling them back and forth.  

“But they start to peep out when you’re excited, don’t they?”

“Y-yes.  Ooh…”  It gave her a lovely hot down-low tugging feeling, her nipples tingling.  “They — they come right out sometimes if you suck them.”  Feeling more daring still, she asked, “Will you?  Please suck them?”

Holly hunched over, pressing Chip’s breasts upward, and flickered her tongue in the little slit in the puffy areola where the bud of the nipple peeked out, looking up at her with deep blue eyes.  Chip moaned faintly, and she drew it into her mouth between soft, slick lips.   _ Holly loves to suck, loves to use her mouth, oh fuck, her mouth…   _ Chip closed her eyes in bliss, curling her toes and digging in her heels.  The tug grew stronger and deeper, her nipple swelling against Holly’s slowly, firmly working tongue, until Holly released it with a soft, wet pop of her lips and lifted her head to admire the effect; one large, protruding nipple rising from a swollen areola, the other still half-embedded in its nest.  Holly gave them both a small, proud smile and bent to draw that one out too.  Chip pinched the swollen, wet nipple, both for the pleasure of it and because she just didn’t  _ see _ it all that often and it seemed a pity not to catch up.

“They look funny when they’re big,” she breathed.  “Funny but nice.  Ooh, Holly…”

“And speaking of big,” said Holly, sitting up and rocking her hips, “do I feel a certain stirring in my depths?”

“Maybe a little bit.”

“This is not little,” Holly said, still rocking, tightening the strong sleek muscles lining her cunt.  “I’ve enjoyed dicks of all shapes and sizes by now and I’m clear about that.  Ooh!  Getting thicker.   _ Ooh — _ that’s lovely…”

Chip breathed in deeply and released it in a sigh.  She was getting harder, stretching in the lush wetness of Holly’s pussy.  Holly’s hands still kneaded her breasts, pinching her nipples tighter, and she moaned, trying to force her hips to be still while Holly’s undulated heavily.  Delight was dawning on Holly’s face again, a deep-blue flush blooming just above her breasts and climbing the thick column of her neck.  “Oh, Holly… so good… you’re so beautiful…”

“I want to feel you moving too,” Holly said.  “Put your back into it.  Yes!”

“But I’ll… I’ll…”

“No you won’t,” Holly assured her.  “If one is perfectly calm, and ten is coming, tell me when you feel you’re up to, ooh, eight or nine.  Then we’ll count you down.  Yes?”

“Yes,” Chip breathed.  

“So just fuck away until you hit that eight.  Oh!”  Her eyes popped wide as Chip rolled up into her.  “Oh yes!”  They rode together until Chip blurted out, “Eight!” and then in a panic, “Nine, nine!”

“Sh-sh-shh,” Holly said urgently, shuddering to a stop.  She braced her hands on Chip’s shoulders, panting, her breasts swinging.  “Shhhhhh, shhhhh, deep, calm breathing.  Eight?”

“Ei-eight,” Chip agreed.  The urgency was still there but holding still helped.  

“Seven,” Holly breathed, “down to seven, slowing down, oh, it still feels  _ so _ good but we can last, can’t we?”

“Seven.  Ssss… six…”

“Mmm.  Good  _ girl. _  Five?”

Chip pointed her toes, stretched her legs, breathed in and out.  “Five.”

“Ready to go again?  I don’t want to let you cool right off.”

“Mmm.”  Feeling steadied, Chip slid her hands up Holly’s thighs again, feeling how they tensed as she pushed herself up.  “Is it — are you feeling good?”

“That’s a silly question.  I was at seven when you hit eight.  Fuck me, darling.”

Chip arched up, pumping into the hot slick wet, grunting.  Holly was moving faster, her breasts bouncing and her tummy shaking, her face alight with fierce, intent pleasure, her pussy smacking softly, lusciously against Chip’s skin.  Her breathing was deep and gusty and rapid, a husky  _ haaahhh, haaaahhhh,  _ climbing into throaty cries that peaked as she trembled, pulling tight in sharp spasms that brought Chip off with her in a rush.  She rocked to a standstill, her head hanging and her chest heaving, her skin dewed with silvery sweat.  

_ “Oh…”  _ she groaned, her voice thrumming sweetly, and lowered herself to lie on Chip’s belly, their breasts pressed together.  “Ooh, Chip.”  An indulgent little laugh bubbled out of her and she nuzzled against Chip’s snub nose.  “That was damn near perfect.”

Chip threw her arms around Holly’s body with an exultant hum.  “Did I do good?”

“Yes, you shining Gem, you did  _ great.”   _

“You were so beautiful.  I felt like a  _ mountain _ was riding me.”

“A mountain?” Holly repeated.  “I’ve never been called  _ that _ before.”

“A mountain  _ range.”   _ Chip pushed herself up, pushed both of them up so she could sit with Holly in her lap and hugged her with all her might before kissing her long and deep, adoringly.  

 

Holly lay on her back, her arm around Chip, watching her sleep.  She had finally dozed off after almost an hour’s heartfelt pillow talk, going over and _over_ how wonderful this had been, trying to share with Holly everything she had felt and how precious it had been to her, that she had pleased Holly, that she had even made her _laugh,_ that she had not only seen how beautiful she was in full fucking flight but felt everything about it from the inside, and it had been just for them, the two of them together.

She’d hoped to be forgiven by Chip, to gain her trust and compensate for all the past harshness with warmth and pleasure, and she seemed to have overshot that mark dramatically and unwittingly got Chip to fall in love with her.  Chip might have been halfway there already and only needed the lightest encouragement to charge the rest of the way.  Holly was honestly startled.  She felt warmth and affection from the others as well as desire and friendly mockery, but they weren’t smitten with her like this.  Or maybe Jay was a little bit, but she wasn’t as _innocent_ as Chip seemed to be.  

They both made her feel so guilty, thinking that they were more generous to her than she deserved, vastly more generous than she’d ever been to them, and she felt as if she should _tell_ them that she wasn’t the lovable creature they’d created in their minds, much less the object of worship and adoration Chip was imagining, and yet she knew saying that would only hurt them.  They were _enjoying_ being infatuated, and what right did she have to spoil such sincere and innocent pleasure with hard facts?

Maybe, if she was stupendously lucky and careful, she could try to sort of _retroactively_ deserve the way they felt about her.  Most likely, even if things went well, time and familiarity would tone down the adoration.  She’d feel better then.  She hardly noticed the way she was slipping into thinking of a long term future with them, pushing away the dread of Blue Diamond’s icy contempt if she ever knew of her failure that had driven her into their arms in the first place.  Holly lay gazing at Chip’s sleeping face, pillowed on her breast, and felt an aching tenderness, an inarguable need to be at least a little of what Chip loved.


	10. Chapter 10

Chip woke up warm but without Holly.  There was a blanket around her, though, and it hadn’t been there when she fell asleep.  She rubbed the soft fabric against her cheek and breathed in Holly’s particular personal smell.  She wished Holly had wanted to stay with her but she  _ had  _ done something to take care of her before she left.  She must have had something important to do.  Chip sat up and rubbed her eyes, wrinkling her nose, and then stretched her arms over her head.  The misty curtains were drawn around the bed too, and the way the room looked through them reminded her of the long-ago morning fogs in the Prime Kindergarten.  She shivered a little bit, remembering that.

Then she heard a soft exhalation of breath and realised Holly was still there.  She must be working at her desk, and she’d closed the curtains so the shifting light of the screens wouldn’t disturb Chip.  She really, truly was trying to take care of her.  Chip bit her lip and wriggled her shoulders in happiness, and then slipped between the curtains and off the bed.  She wondered for a moment if she should have reformed her clothes, but there was probably nothing wrong with being naked in Holly’s room under the circumstances.  There was a pale pink carpet on the floor and it felt both soft and rough under her bare feet.  

Holly  _ was _ at her desk, sitting bundled up in a big shawl and reading a big pane of text.  She didn’t look too happy about whatever it was.  As Chip approached her, padding quietly over the carpet, a tear spilled down her cheek and she sniffed.  

“Oh Holly, what’s wrong?” Chip asked in dismay.  Holly clearly hadn't noticed her until then; she jumped and gasped.  

“Don't sneak up on me!” she snapped.  More tears spilled.  

“I didn't mean to.  I'm sorry.  What's the matter?”  She knelt beside Holly's chair.  “Is there anything I can do?”

Holly scrubbed at her eyes with a bunch of the shawl.  “Nothing,” she said, “I’m being stupid.”

“Please don't say that,” Chip said, rather helplessly.  She would give almost anything to comfort Holly or solve her problem but it didn't seem to be her place to insist.  

“I’ve wasted so much time!” Holly burst out.  “Thousands of years, completely misspent,  _ deluding _ myself I was someone special, trusted by Blue Diamond, being  _ hideous _ to all of you, looking down on you, consoling myself by writing  _ rubbish…” _  She trailed off with a sob and Chip forgot about her place and bobbed up to hug her tightly.  Holly swivelled in her chair, turning in towards Chip, and laid her forehead on her shoulder, weeping heavily.  

Chip felt that at least she could do this with confidence.  Holding someone upset while they cried, whether they were a big strong Gem or a little human, was simple and came naturally to her.  She kept one arm snugly around Holly's shaking body and with the other hand rubbed a slow circle between her shoulderblades.  She  _ had _ been right about Holly holding tension here.  

“It's okay,” she murmured, “let it out.  I’ll stay right here.”  Holly tried to say something unintelligible and went back to crying.  “It's okay,” Chip repeated, “just take your time, let it all out.”  She waited.  Waiting was another thing she could do well.  Amethysts tended to be impatient, so maybe it was because she wasn’t quite an Amethyst.  She kept rubbing the tense place as it slowly loosened and Holly gradually calmed down, her sobs fading into sniffles and deep shaky breaths.  Eventually she sat back and wiped her eyes, sniffing hard.  “Did that help?” Chip asked.

Holly smiled wanly.  “Thank you,” she said.  “You really shouldn’t be this kind to me.”

“But… I want to,” Chip said uncertainly, “so can I?”

Holly gave a rueful laugh.  “Who am I to tell you no?”

“You’re my Agate.  And you know, if Blue Diamond doesn’t think you’re someone special, she — she’s making a mistake.”  It felt like an awesomely daring thing to say and she was glad the portrait had its eyes covered.  Holly didn’t look shocked, but she shook her head.  “What did you mean about writing rubbish?” Chip asked.

Holly glanced sideways at her screen and gathered her shawl around herself again.  “You can be discreet, can’t you, Chip?”  She wiped at her cheek again with the palm of one hand.  “I mean, if I show you something I want to keep private.”

“Of course,” Chip said readily.

“Come here.”  Holly beckoned her to look at the screen.  “Please don’t laugh.  Just… look at this.”  She brought up the first page of… oh.   _ The Cerulean Chronicles, Book One:  A Loyal Outcast.   _ Chip had read this dozens of times, could probably have copied out the first scene of Cerulean walking the battlements of the remote keep she’d been exiled to from memory.  Sometimes people quoted it for a joke, if someone was looking gloomy or sorry for herself, and it almost always got a smile.

“I know, I know, it’s hopelessly sentimental.  And if you can believe it, there’s more.”  Holly flicked open a subpane showing the titles of all the rest, seven long volumes.  “I wrote all of this nonsense to keep my fantasies alive and give myself a sort of  _ other _ life where they could be true.  I wrote them for myself and read them again and again, and now when I look at them all I can see is foolishness and waste.  That’s why I was crying.”

“Holly,” Chip said, feeling her belly tighten with dread, “I need to tell you something.  I’m so sorry, but we know about Cerulean.”

_ “What.” _  Holly’s eyes widened and her face went stiff with shock.

“We were bored, because there was hardly ever anything new in the library, it’s like Homeworld thinks you’re the only one on the station who can  _ read, _ and Skinny was playing with the computer, she’s smart with things like that, and she found a way into your private files, and we knew it was bad but  _ things _ were bad and we were mad at you sometimes and I’m sorry and we looked at your files and we found your stories and we all read them.  All of them.”  Chip swallowed hard.  “I’m sorry.”

Holly slowly covered her nose and mouth with her hands, pressed together.  Chip could hear her breathing rapidly behind them.  She closed her eyes tightly, and then spoke, muffled.  “You must all have been in fits laughing at me.”

“It was funny,” Chip said, “but it was  _ nice _ too.  Knowing there was more to you than being angry with us.  And we all read them over and over!  I feel like I  _ know _ Cerulean and Azzurra and Indigo and Cyanne from all their adventures.  And then at the end when Azzurra brought Cerulean home for good and raised her up in front of the whole court and I knew she was going to live happily ever after, I wished I could tell you how glad I was and how sad that there wouldn’t be any more stories.”

“You don’t have to say that,” Holly said bitterly, “you don’t have to be  _ nice. _  They’re pathetic stories.  They’re just self-indulgent nonsense.”

“I’m not being nice!  I mean I want to be nice but it’s true too.  Oh, Holly, just look.”  Chip leaned past her and made a few quick swipes and tapped in the passcode Skinny had set up.  “These are  _ our _ private files.  This is where we share the things we make for each other.  We started writing stories for each other because of  _ you. _  We thought, if Holly can do it why can’t we?  You don’t have to be a scholar after all.  And look here, look!  Here’s where I keep the pictures I drew.  I — I’m not a really good artist like Kay but please look.”  She started opening up pictures, Cerulean in her forget-me-not armour, Azzurra on her celestial throne, the big fight between Indigo and the beast of the deep, Cyanne playing her harp, Cerulean making her vow to Azzurra.

Chip turned to look anxiously, eagerly at Holly.  More tears were gleaming in the corners of her eyes and Chip reproached herself.  Of course Holly didn’t want to see her ugly drawings.  She couldn’t even do fingers right.  “I’m sorry,” she said hastily.  “I’ll delete them, I’ll wipe them.”

“Don’t you dare,” said Holly thickly, and lunged forward to hug her tightly.  “I love them.  Are there any more?”

“Sure,” Chip said.  “Sure there are!   I’ve drawn nearly all my favourite parts.  Like here's when Cerulean has the vision that tells her Azzurra is in danger from the sinister countess so even though her own life will be forfeit she goes back to the city of light to protect her.  Oh, and here's when they fought the pirates!   Here's the part where Indigo and Cyanne have to say goodbye forever — oh man, I was  _ so _ glad when you brought Indy back in the last book!  Did I get them right?  I try to draw them just like your descriptions but I might be imagining them different.”

“They're perfect,” Holly said firmly.  “Who's that with Cerulean, though?  I don't recognise her.”  She tapped the screen.

“Oh.  Um, that's someone I made up myself.  After the books were over I just sort of thought maybe I could imagine things that happen later, during the happily ever after, and I thought maybe Cerulean could have kind of a squire type… thing.  A young fighter she's training.  I called her Carmine.  I'm sorry, I know that was really cheeky of me.”

Holly shook her head. “It's a lovely idea.  After all I put her through I’m sure Cerulean would have a lot to teach.”  She glanced at Chip again, nibbling at her lip.  “Did you really, truly like the stories?”

“Yes!  Not everyone liked them as  _ much _ as I did,” Chip added, feeling honour bound to be truthful, “but everyone had fun with them.  I think some of us just don't like fantasy so much.  I love your descriptions and the beautiful words you use and how kind of  _ big _ and  _ grand _ everyone's feelings are.”

Holly kissed her cheek.  “You’re sweet, Chip.  You truly are.  I’m glad I know that now.”  

“Aww,” Chip said, shaking her head.  A little guiltily, she closed the pane with the secret files in it.  Holly wouldn’t be able to reopen it without the code, and before they let her know the code Chip was going to have to talk to the others about either deleting or hiding in some yet more secret archive of their own all the stuff that would only hurt Holly’s feelings, all the stuff that they’d written and drawn when they were mad at her or fed up with her, the caricatures and the venting,  _ The Big Blue Bitch Books,  _ a parody of  _ The Cerulean Chronicles _ that didn’t have much going for it beyond the satisfyingly alliterative title —  _ that _ would have to go, she couldn’t see Holly ever having a sense of humour about it.

“But it is  _ extremely _ naughty of all of you to be interfering with the station computer.”  Holly gave Chip’s bare bottom a pat like the faintest shadow of a spank.  “And next time I requisition supplies I’ll ask for more reading material.  I haven’t wanted to call attention to us but it would also call attention if we went entirely silent, and there  _ are _ things we need.”

“Thank you, Holly.”  Chip hesitated.  “May I kiss you?”

“Of course you may, but it’s always nice to be asked so politely.”  She turned her face to Chip’s.  Her tears had run into the corners of her mouth and Chip could still taste the salt there.  Holly let the shawl she’d been clutching so tightly, as if for comfort, slip down so that her smooth round shoulders were bare.  

“You look so beautiful,” said Chip, “always so beautiful.”

“Tell me,” said Holly eagerly, “what would you like?  I want to treat you to — well, what would be a treat for you? What would make you feel really,  _ really _ good?”

“Oh, gosh.”  Chip’s mind was a blank again.  She gave a flustered laugh.  “Would you, um, okay!  Would you do my hair?”

“Your hair?” Holly repeated, her eager expression freezing a bit.  “How do you mean?”  

“Well, um, I don’t know if this is a special thing you’d only do for Sharky… I don’t mean to… I hope I’m not out of line,” Chip faltered.  “She said once you brushed her hair and fixed it up really prettily.  I thought that would be… nice.”

“She told you about that?”  Holly seemed bemused.

“She was showing off about it a little!”

Holly giggled.  “That’s not what I’d have expected her to brag about.”

“Oh, she brags about everything.  But… yeah.  Would you, um, would you do that for me too?”

“Absolutely.”  Holly stood up, letting the shawl slip off completely, and went to her dressing table with a quick light step.  Chip stared at her back, at the two deep dimples half-lit by starlight from the window, for a long dazed moment before she bounded up to follow her.

 

Holly gathered up her brush and hairpins with Chip hovering just behind her.

“What should I do?  Can I help?” Chip asked.  Holly was still getting used to how solicitous she was.  It felt lovely — stars, it felt almost like she imagined having a Pearl would be, but you couldn’t take it for granted the way you could with a Pearl whose job and purpose it was to be keenly helpful.  For a moment she had a mental picture of Chip in one of those little satin leotards with translucent frippery bits, and had to bite her tongue to stop herself laughing and having to explain what she was laughing about.  

“Turn up the lights, please, my dear, and then just go and sit on the bed.”  As the bedroom lights came up Holly had a quick look at herself in the mirror.  Her eyes were still puffy from crying and her hair was unravelling from its buns, but she didn’t look as bad as she could have.  She quickly pulled her hair loose and ran the brush through it; better to be all undone than halfway.  And Chip was waiting for her, kneeling in the middle of the bed and sitting on her heels, looking nervously fidgety but flushed with happiness.  She was so extraordinarily  _ cute,  _ the chubby-muscular body and the round-cheeked, snub-nosed face; they all had a cuteness to them once you were ready to see it but Chip had it in spades.  

Holly pushed back the curtain and climbed onto the bed behind her.  “Let’s see,” she said.  She began by briskly but gently brushing out the slight tangles that had formed from sleeping on sweat-damp hair.  Chip’s silky, fluffy hair was a funny colour, a dark dun-pink that she would almost call puce if puce weren’t such an unpleasant sort of word.  She’d gone through a phase of looking up all sorts of colour words for character names and had immediately ruled out puce unless she needed a nasty little sub-villain.  If she’d been basing a character on that traitor Pearl she’d have called her Puce without a second thought.

That  _ was _ a thought.  She’d based Queen Azzurra on Blue Diamond, obviously, and Cerulean had been not so much based on herself as a character for whom she could make her own dreams come true.  Cerulean’s faithful companions Indigo and Cyanne had been pretty much entirely imaginary and honestly, she’d come to feel that they might be a little bit hollow.  She’d tried to give them their own lives by having them fall in love with each other and struggle nobly with their forbidden passion, but they mostly existed to listen to Cerulean and believe in her and encourage her.  Would it be possible to write something better about Cerulean if she had companions based on real people, with more personality?  If Carmine were adorable and shy and devoted like Chip?  Her brushing hand slowed as characters suddenly teemed into her head, a chivalrous lavender knight, a purple pirate queen, a saucy crimson dwarf…

She abruptly realised that if she wrote that story it would quickly shift from romantic fantasy to hardcore pornography, and what was the point of writing  _ that _ when her life was as pornographic as it currently was?

Even hypothetically, she wouldn’t let Puce be in any of the fun filthy parts, anyway.  That would teach her.  Somehow.

“Holly?” Chip said.  “You stopped brushing.  Is there a problem?”

“No problem, no, I was just thinking about what to do with your hair,” Holly said hastily.  “Any requests?”

“I trust you to do something _ lovely,” _ Chip said happily.

“Oh my.  Well, you’ve left me carte blanche, so you’ll just have to take your chances.  Hmm.”  Probably the simplest thing that would adequately contain the  _ volume _ of Chip’s hair and look pretty would be to make a long braid and then either coil it into a bun or wrap it around as a coronet.  She gathered it together in her hands, divided it into three and made a start.  Glancing down as she worked, she noticed a further instance of adorability; Chip was doing her best to keep still but she was so tickled to be getting her hair plaited that her toes, peeping out under her plump bottom, kept twiddling and twitching irrepressibly.  She had to lean forward and kiss Chip’s bare shoulder, which made her wriggle with delight and utter a very soft little squeak.

 

Jay had come to the mildly embarrassing but overall pleasant realisation that she couldn’t quite bring herself to leave Holly alone for any extended period.  She was super happy for Chip getting special alone time with Holly, not least because she knew for herself how good special alone time with Holly felt (she’d always been happy as a member of a big jolly jumble of Gems, with everyone sharing the love, but it turned out also having the undivided attention of someone special who made  _ you _ feel special was  _ awesome).   _ However, she was clearly going to have to go and check on them.  Chip might be out of her depth.  Holly was a handful.  And of course Jay missed her.

She listened at Holly’s door, realised she didn’t actually know whether you could hear much through this door (although Holly in full fuck flight would surely have been audible) and knocked.

After a moment, Holly called out, “Who is it?”

“Just Jay.”

“And  _ what  _ is it?”

“Can I come in?”

“I don’t know,  _ can _ you?”

Jay shook her head.  As much as she’d mellowed, Holly could still be just a tiny bit prissy about certain things.   _ “May _ I come in?”

“Come in, my dear.”  And the “my dear” smoothed out the  _ “can _ you?” as far as Jay was concerned.  She ducked in and saw Holly kneeling on the bed behind Chip, doing something fancy to her hair.  They were both naked and from the rumpled look of the bed they’d made good use of it.  From the look of Holly too; her hair was hanging in loose curls around her shoulders and her cheeks were still flushed.  She was just so  _ pretty _ that way; it always made Jay sentimental.

“Hey,” she said, “I just wanted to drop by and check in.  Everything okay?”

“Everything’s perfectly fine,” said Holly.  “Chip and I have been having a  _ lovely _ time.  You should know,” she added to Chip, “it was Jay that told me I should pay more attention to you, and she was absolutely correct.”  She kissed Chip’s shoulder.  

“Oh,” said Chip.  She glanced sheepishly at Jay, who sat down on the side of the bed and leaned back comfortably on her arms.  “Um.  Thank you.  How did you even know I was here, though?”

“Oh, uh, Skinny saw you guys in the corridor…”  Jay made an illustrative gesture, pumping her circled thumb and forefinger toward her mouth while poking out her cheek with her tongue in time.  “And then she said Holly grabbed ya and dragged you off to her lair to ravish you, which was maybe a little bit of poetic licence.”

“It was a  _ lot _ of poetic licence,” said Holly, wrapping the fat braid she’d made around Chip’s head like a coronet and considering the effect.  She nodded, looking pleased, and began to pin it into place.

“She didn’t need to drag me,” Chip mumbled.  “And I don’t think this is a  _ lair.   _ A lair sounds like somewhere  _ bad _ things happen.”

“Okay, a  _ boudoir,” _ said Jay, chuckling.  “You know, I was thinking about what you said the other day.  About me and Sharky, how we weren’t all that close before we got together with Holly.  You had a point.”

“Oh?” said Chip, folding her hands in her lap.  She seemed a little flustered, but that could be from naked Holly proximity.  Chip tended to be praise-shy anyway.

“Yeah, I mean I was thinking… okay,  _ obviously _ Holly was stuck in a rut and she needed a big change.  I can say that, right Holly-dolly?”

“It’s uncontroversial,” Holly said, shrugging.  

“So we changed things for Holly, that’s obvious, but till you pointed it out I hadn’t thought much about how being with  _ her _ has changed things for  _ me. _  I feel like maybe  _ I _ should be paying more attention to you, ‘cuz you notice things like that.”  Jay reached over and gently tapped Chip’s forehead.

“It was no big deal,” Chip said.  “Wait, do you mean the … kind of attention?”  She copied Jay’s gesture, making her snort with laughter.

“Chip, sweetheart, please don’t mime fellatio while I’m fixing your hair, it makes your head bob.”  That made them both dissolve into dirty giggles, Chip’s muffled by her hands clapped over her mouth.

“Aw, Holly, how come you don’t fix  _ my _ hair?” Jay asked, rolling over and bobbing up on her hands and knees.  

“You haven’t asked me to,” Holly pointed out, tucking the last loose wisp under and sliding the last pin in to hold it.  “There!  Go and look in the mirror and tell me if you think it’s pretty.”  Chip rolled off the bed and bounded over to the dressing table, where she spent some time twisting around admiring herself.

“It’s beautiful!” she said.  “I look like someone else!”

“Do me,” Jay demanded, then added with her most charming smile, “please.”

“I’m clean out of pins,” Holly said, “so you’ll have to settle for something very basic.”  She gathered Jay’s hair into a loose ponytail, poked a hole through it above the hairband and pulled the ponytail over and through it.  “There, it looks much fancier than it is.”  

Chip clambered back onto the bed beside her and wrapped her arms around her, kissing her cheek.  “Thank you, Holly,” she said, nuzzling.  

“You’re very welcome,” said Holly, looking tickled; she rocked her cheek against Chip’s nose.  

“So Chippy’s taking good care of you?” Jay asked.  “Not wearin’ you out too fast?”

“We took a nap after the second big fuck,” Chip said proudly.  “I’m pacing her.”

“Good thinking.  She’s got that Quartz stamina but she’ll go longer with a rest break.”  Jay  _ hoped _ she wasn’t being a territorial dick showing off how familiar she was with Holly’s stamina.  It was this funny thing where she was happy to share but she wanted it understood that she was sharing something  _ of hers. _

“It’s so funny to think of Holly being a Quartz like us.  I mean, not like  _ us. _  But still Quartzy.”  Chip brushed her fingers through Holly’s hair fondly.  

“Why is that funny?” Holly asked, shooting her a quizzical glance.

“Aw, you know, imagining  _ you  _ coming out of a Kindergarten,” Jay said, stroking her cheek.  

“Well, where did you think I came from?  Out of a shell like a Pearl?   _ I _ am from Facet  _ 1B.”   _ There was just a trace of old snobby Holly in the pride she said that with.

“Whew.  Swanky,” said Jay, raising her eyebrows.  “I mean, in that special way where we’ve read about it but we’re dirty colonials so we basically have no frame of reference.”

“I thought all the 1-facets were worked out a  _ long _ time ago,” Chip said, looking puzzled.  “You’re not  _ that _ much older than us, are you?”

“Well, no, confidentially I’m from a small annex to Facet 1B, a formerly inaccessible fissure opened up by strategically placed detonations.  I was one of three Holly Blue Agates who were the very last out of 1B, and that was the last 1-facet operational.  They finally closed it for good just about the time the colonisation of Earth began in earnest.”

“So you’re not much older than us at  _ all,” _ Chip said.  “I’m glad.  I like you being a bit older but not ancient.  This way you don’t feel out of reach.”

“I am the farthest thing from out of reach,” Holly said, tutting at her. 

“So… you’re the nearest thing  _ within _ reach?” Chip asked.

“Just a moment.  Here.  Straighten those legs out.”  Holly turned and clambered to straddle Chip’s lap, draping her arms over her shoulders.   _ “Now _ I’m the nearest thing.”

Chip giggled, tried to say something and giggled again.  She seemed overwhelmed by the sheer happiness of having Holly’s breasts directly in front of her face.  She wrapped her arms around Holly’s waist, squeezed her ample ass with both hands, and nuzzled in between them, gazing up at Holly with big adoring eyes.

“Ooh,” said Holly archly.  “Can I feel someone pricking up again?   _ Something _ is stirring in your lap.”

“Can I suck your boobies?” Chip asked earnestly.

“Of course you can, my darling,” said Holly.   _ Darling? _ Jay thought.   _ That’s new, I’ve been precious and dear but not darling.  She’s really doing what we wanted and making Chip feel special.   _ Chip was rapturously sucking one nipple, her eyes closed, her big hands kneading Holly’s buttocks, and Holly was biting her lip, beginning to breathe faster.

“Not to horn in,” said Jay, “but there are two, so can I…”

“Mmh.”  Chip angled her shoulders away to let Jay in and Holly’s breathing fluttered as Jay brushed her tongue over the other nipple before sucking it in.  

“Ohhh…” she sighed, sinking her fingers into Jay’s hair.  “Oh, you sweet…”  She rolled her hips restlessly and Chip grunted.  Jay could feel the nipple swelling in her mouth as she sucked harder, drawing it deeper before she released it with a soft pop of her lips and tickled it with the flicking tip of her tongue.  Holly whimpered and pressed on the back of her head, pushing her breast back into Jay’s mouth and making her chuckle, muffled.

“That’s good,” Holly crooned, “that’s right, my Chippy, my Jay, oh, Chip is getting so  _ hard.   _ You’re making me so  _ wet!”   _

“Can I?” Chip mumbled against her breast.

“Oh, please.”  Holly made a sound between a whimper and a grunt as Chip reached between her thighs, and ground her hips down.  “There…  Oh, there, that’s just…”  A muffled squeak and a long, soft sigh, and Holly lifted herself and sank down again.  

“Oh Holly…” Chip moaned, pushing up into her, her cheeks dark crimson.  

_ Oh shit, they’re adorable together.  Where’d this whole sweet encouraging nurture-you-while-you-fuck-me Holly come from?  I think I like her. _

“That’s it, that’s lovely,” Holly murmured.  “So big, so hard, so nice and thick for my pussy.  Lie back, darling, just like that — oh Jay, sweetheart?  Could you get her a pillow?  More comfortable, right, Chippy?”

“On it,” said Jay, ever the good sport.  She grabbed one of the big pillows and tucked it under Chip’s head and shoulders as she lay back with a dazed, joyful smile on her face.

“That’s right.  Thank you, sweetie.  Oh… oh, I’m just going to go for a little ride.”  Holly leant forward on her arms, her breasts bobbing against Chip’s delighted face, and began to pump her hips, sliding up and down the shaft of her ruddy cock.  “Oh yes!  Oh my!”

“I remember when  _ someone _ couldn’t string two words together unless it was to scream,” Jay said, shuffling round on her hands and knees to enjoy the view from behind, Holly’s thick ass bouncing up and down, her soft pussy flaring and squishing and smacking around Chip’s dick.  She’d noticed before that Chip got twitchy feet when she was trying to control herself, and they were twirling around, toes curling and crossing.  “Now you’re so chatty!”

“An Agate is — adaptable,” Holly panted.  “Oh Chippy, that’s perfect, suck just like that, you’re a wonder!  Can you fuck me a little harder, darling?  Oh, that’s it, that’s it!”

“Actually?  This looks familiar.  Except then you didn’t know what to do and now you’re riding like a pro.”  Jay rested her hand on Holly’s bobbing bottom and slid her thumb down into the cleft, parting the cheeks.  “Remember the first time I fucked you?”

“I’m — ah! — hardly likely to forget  _ that!” _  Holly cast a glance back at her over her shoulder, her mouth hanging half open and her cheeks flushed indigo.  “That was — that was good, but everything’s got so much better.”

“Oh, you know it.  You want a repeat?”

“Oh, yes please.”  Holly put on the brakes, drawing a groan of protest from Chip.  “It’s okay, darling, you can fuck me again any minute now, just let my sweet Jay get into position.”  She trembled as Jay shuffled in behind and sank her cock into the snug ring of her anus.  “Fe — feel that?” she gasped.

_ “Tight,” _ said Chip faintly.

“I’m so  _ full _ of you,” Holly breathed.

“Hey Chip,” said Jay, “can you feel her twitching too?”  She laid her hands over Chip’s on Holly’s quivering hips.

“Yussssssss.”

“So fuckin’ good, right?  Let’s let Holly-dolly set the pace.”  Jay lifted her hand to give Holly a firm pat on the ass.  “Away you go.”

“Ohhhh...”  Holly gave one of her deep, throaty moans as she flexed her back and pushed down on Chip.  The soft slick heat around Jay’s cock moved and pulled, sucked at her as Holly rocked forward almost far enough to pull herself off its tip, then enveloped her as she pushed back.  She could feel the pressure of Chip moving against her too, rubbing the underside of her shaft, and that was the funny, nice thing about sharing Holly this way, the feeling of intimacy with the other Gem fucking her.  Clearly Chip had come deep in Holly’s ass earlier; traces of it were squishing out around Jay’s pumping cock, forming a creamy froth on the plump, puffy rim of Holly’s asshole.

“Hollyyyyy,” Chip whimpered, her fingers twitching and clutching, dimpling into Holly’s soft flesh.  

“Yes, my darling, yes, my darling, just like that, keep going, keep going…”  Holly was beginning to tense up, her pace quickening, her bottom and thighs slapping against their bodies.  “Oh, here it comes, here it comes, here it  _ comes!”   _ The way she  _ squeezed _ was all Jay needed, and she came with a delighted gasp, cramming her dick as deep as she could, hearing Holly’s joyful squeal merged with Chip’s near-roar.  They collapsed together in a slippery, sweaty stack.  

“Ooooh…” Holly sighed, and then began to giggle.  “Yes!”  That was Jay’s favourite change, she thought, from the Holly who plainly wanted to fuck but just as plainly was nervous and overwhelmed by the experience to the Holly who threw herself into it joyfully and was bubbly with elation afterwards.  She laughed and smacked a kiss on the back of Holly’s neck.  

“Holly,” Chip said blissfully, and started to giggle too.  


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Attention!  
> 1\. Short chapter.  
> 2\. New kinks in the tags - we've got lactation, simulated pregnancy and mommy kink entering the building.

After a bit of happy post-coital flopping around Jay’s caretaker instincts seemed to take over; she hauled herself off Holly and found a soft cloth to soak with warm water and do some cleaning up.  She wiped herself down first and came back to take care of Holly, but she rolled away and nestled her bottom into Chip’s lap, where it was extremely welcome if Chip’s chuckling and snuggling were anything to go by.  

“Oh, so you want to stay all sticky?” Jay asked, wagging her finger under Holly’s nose.  

“I like feeling… wet and squishy,” Holly said.  “I’m allowed.”

“Yeah, you’re allowed.  You want a clean-up, Chippy?”

“Not yet,” said Chip, nuzzling Holly’s shoulder.  “I like having Holly goo on me.  Hee! Holly Goo Agate.”

“When it dries and gets tacky I may change my tune,” Holly said.  “Initially, I must say, I found it distasteful but it’s different now.  To be honest, I think I was scared of any messiness.  Now the messiness just feels lush and warm and, ooh… let’s say deliciously debauched.”

“You always think of such lovely words,” Chip said.  “I’m so dumb, I’m just like ‘mmmm, goosh.’”

“You’re not dumb at all,” Holly said hastily, feeling a sting of guilt.  “I don’t want you calling yourself dumb or stupid.  I shouldn’t have done it either.  I — I don’t care if it’s not what an Agate’s supposed to do, I want to try to encourage you, not browbeat you.”

“Best Agate right here,” said Jay, patting Holly on the hip and settling down beside them.  “You guys want a blankie?”

“Mmm, no, I’m warm and cosy,” said Chip, tightening her arms around Holly’s waist.

“Me too,” said Holly contentedly.  “Also, mmm, goosh.”

“If we were human you’d be so pregnant by now,” Jay said, patting Holly’s tummy.  “And we would have nooooooo idea whose it was.”

“Well, maybe when she had the baby and we could see who it looked like,” Chip said.

“Probably purple,” said Jay.  “Or blue-purple.  Blurple.  A beautiful blurple baby.”

“You’re both being very silly,” said Holly, amused.  “Imagine  _ me _ being pregnant!”

“I… kind of sometimes do,” said Jay with a sheepish smile.

Holly blinked.  “Imagine me being pregnant?”

“I just think pregnancy is sexy, whatever.”

“I thought you thought it was cute,” Holly said.  “You talk about how  _ cute _ the humans are when they’re pregnant.”  Jay could talk at some length about how cute they were, to the point where it became a bit tiresome and Holly tended to tune it out or wait for an opportunity to change the subject.

“Well, turns out what I think is cute on humans can be really hot on Gems,” Jay said, and shrugged.  “I mean, not just you.  But honestly?  Especially you.”

“Is… this a new thing?” Holly asked, feeling as if she was running to catch up.  “I’ve never heard about it before.”

“Nah,” said Chip, nuzzling her neck.  “Jay’s been a huge perv about pregnancy since forever ago.  Everyone knows.”

“I had no idea!” Holly said, dismayed.  

“I wasn’t keeping it a secret, it just hadn’t come up yet.  I guess you just never happened to be around or looking when we were doing it.  You know how we like shapeshifting and playing pretend.”

“You know, I don’t think she really does,” said Chip, “at least, not so much the playing pretend stuff ‘cuz honestly, just getting to fuck Holly is so new and so hot we’ve been really focused on that.  I can’t think of any time we’ve played characters or done little stories with Holly there.”

“Oh yeah,” said Jay, propping her head up on her arm.  “Huh.  Sorry, Holls, we weren’t trying to leave you out of anything, we just didn’t think of it!”

“So you mean you act out… making someone pregnant?”

“Or getting pregnant, being pregnant, I like both,” Jay said, nodding.  Her slight embarrassment seemed to have dissolved.

“And giving birth to a baby?” Holly asked, hoping it would start making sense if she just got all the details.

“Well, no, ‘cuz there  _ isn’t _ a baby, unless we, I dunno, pretended a cushion was a baby or something.  Plus once there  _ is _ a baby in real life everything switches over to taking care of the baby and the sexy part’s over.  Except for the milky titties, but we just say screw it and have those all the way through the pregnant part, it’s not like we have to be realistic when we’re just having fun.”

“I  _ love _ the milky titties part,” Chip said fervently.

“I didn’t know that.  You should come play with me and Ellie when we do it, she  _ loves _ breastfeeding.”

“But what about me?” Holly blurted.  

“You can too.  Of  _ course _ you can, baby, you know we always want you.”  Jay kissed her on the forehead.

“But you were saying you imagine making me pregnant.  As if we were humans and I were your Choosening mate.  Is that it?  Or have I misunderstood?”

“No, that’s exactly what I’m imagining.  Fucking you deep and hard, shooting a load right up inside you, holding you and kissing and cuddling you while it starts.  My baby in your belly.”

“Oh,” said Holly faintly.  Maybe it was just the allusion to fucking her deep and hard, but she felt a little twitch and pulse in her pussy.  

“And then taking care of you while you’re pregnant, being so proud when you start to show — you know, everyone can see your little round belly, everyone knows I put a baby in you, you’ve got that whole ripening glow thing happening, it’s great.”  Jay was circling her hand over the soft pudge of Holly’s tummy, her eyes soft and dreamy.  “And seeing you get bigger, your belly all round and firm and full, the way your hips tilt a bit so your ass sticks out more and you get that little waddle in your walk, that part’s just straight-up cute, and your breasts getting so heavy and swollen with milk, they get all sore and you need me to massage them and suck them out for you… all of that stuff.”

“I… see.”

“It’s okay if you’re not into it.  Not everyone is.”  Jay slid her hand off Holly’s belly to her hip.

“I don’t see the appeal yet, but I want to do things you like.  And it’s not as if you’d actually be  _ impregnating _ me,” Holly said with a nervous laugh.  “That part’s only play.”

“Well all  _ right,” _ said Jay, her eyes lighting up.  “You wanna give it a shot?”

“Well, if we’re playing it  _ now _ it’s  _ my _ baby because you only came up her  _ butt,” _ Chip said gleefully.

“Hey now,” said Jay, “I’ll have you know I’ve probably creamed Holly’s pussy more than anyone.  Because yeah, Sharky favours the ass.”

“You did say you’d have no idea whose it was,” Holly pointed out, “and without any kind of controlled Choosening programme you would be right.   _ But,” _ she added, turning her head to kiss Chip, “now it  _ could _ be you.”  Chip wriggled happily and squeezed her a moment before letting her sit up.  “What would you want it to… look like?” she asked.

“Hmmm,” said Jay.  “I’m thinking that just starting to show stage, like three, four months?  Don’t worry about being super accurate.  Try just swelling your tummy out slowly till I say when.”  She laid both hands on Holly’s belly and gave her an encouraging nod.

“Like this?”

“Yeah, keep that going.  Aaand… stop.  Oh, that looks great.  Chippy, doesn’t she look great?”

“You really do,” said Chip, sitting up.  “Can I, um, can I  _ think _ it’s my baby?  I’d really enjoy that.”

“Of course you can, darling.  I mean, you can  _ think _ whatever you like.”

“It’s nicer if you  _ know _ I think that, though,” said Chip.  She bent and kissed the small swell of Holly’s belly.  

“Imagine if she  _ was _ pregnant,” Jay said.  Her hands were still on the smooth curve and she gently slid them to its underside, her fingertips just brushing the edge of Holly’s pubic hair.  “All the speculation, all the bets!  People’d be losing their shit.  In a fun way.”

“Sharky would  _ tell _ everyone it was hers,” said Chip.  “Despite all that ass favouritism.”

“Ha!  She would.”  Jay’s eyes sparkled.  “OMS we should tell everyone she IS and freak them OUT.”

“No,” Holly said, tapping Jay on the nose.  “Naughty.”  Jay caught her finger between her teeth and nibbled it gently before letting it go.  “And then, well, my breasts… at this stage it could only be colostrum, of course.”

“I always forget you know stuff like that.”

“I may not work with them as directly as you but I  _ did _ study their whole reproductive process thoroughly.  I wanted to do the job properly for… I wanted to do the job properly.  Don’t talk a moment, I’m concentrating.”

Jay shapeshifted her mouth away to a blank and smiled with her eyes.

“Don’t do that either, it’s disturbing.”  Holly shut her eyes to avoid further distraction, rearranging things.  Making alterations like this always made the area sensitive, if only because she was self-conscious about it.  Her breasts were sensitive to begin with, and trying to coax them into lactating was making them feel overheated and unusually heavy.  Well, Jay did  _ want _ them swollen and sore and in need of relief.  She hadn’t realised how well her efforts had worked when she felt a leak from her right nipple and opened her eyes with a startled gasp.  A bead of cream was running down the lower slope of her breast and dripped onto her belly.  Beside her, Chip squealed and then muffled her squeal with her hands.

“Oh mama,” said Jay softly.  Thank goodness, she had her mouth back.  “Oh Holly,  _ may _ I touch them?”

“Of course you may, that’s what they’re there for,” Holly said.  She was a little amused by how  _ reverently _ Jay cupped her heavy breasts in her hands, but she caught her breath again and just stared as Jay brushed her thumbs over the nipples and then squeezed them firmly between forefingers and thumbs.  She kept squeezing and kneading until a trickle ran from each swollen bud and Holly was breathing heavily.  The pressure from inside and outside was making her breasts throb and she wondered very much if this was what it was  _ supposed _ to feel like.

“Taste yourself,” said Jay with a roguish smile.  She lifted one milk-dripping finger to Holly’s lips for her to suck clean.

That was a new taste, creamy and slightly sweet.  Holly still hadn’t taken on the others’ enthusiasm for eating and drinking all the same things the humans did, though they kept trying to tempt her with the various colourful fruits Pink Diamond had had engineered and balanced to provide them with complete nutrition, so all the flavours she was familiar with came from their own bodies, tastes of sweat, pussy juices, come and now milk.  Jay was bending to take her swollen nipple in her mouth, suckling and kneading firmly with her tongue, drawing out a heavier stream than before, the other breast leaking now in sympathy and the growing heat in her cunt getting another stream flowing between her thighs.

“Can — can I?” Chip asked softly, and Holly realised she was staring at Jay and panting.

“Yes, my darling, here.”  Chip looked up at her so sweetly as she took her other breast that Holly had to stroke her hair and cradle her head, feeling an almost unbearable tenderness.  They were both stroking her belly as they suckled, and Jay slipped an arm behind her back to guide her to lie down.  Hands slid between her thighs, stroking and kneading, fingers brushing her pussy lips, still puffy and sticky from Chip’s eager fucking.  Someone was lightly rubbing her clitoris, someone else was slipping a finger into her cunt, and a shock of pleasure went through her.

Jay came up for air, milk trickling from the corner of her flushed lips, and kissed Holly hungrily; it must be her finger pushing deeper in time with the stroke of her tongue.  

“Is that good?” she whispered hoarsely against Holly’s lips.  Holly moaned and pulled her back down to kiss again, whimpering and arching up as Chip changed the angle of her stroke on her clitoris and the pleasure grew.

“I’m gonna roll you on your side,” Jay said when Holly would let her speak again.  “Can’t get on top of you, might hurt the baby, right?  Chippy, you keep going in front.”

“Mmk,” said Chip indistinctly.  She released Holly’s nipple from her mouth with a soft slurp and panted a few moments before moving to the other breast, nuzzling her snub nose into the soft flesh above the nipple as she drew it in deep.  Holly felt Jay rolling her, pushing in behind her, lifting her thigh with one strong arm and cramming her cock into her pussy so deeply and suddenly that Holly cried out, twitching and pulsing around the penetration.  Jay was thrusting rapidly, eagerly, panting against her shoulder, sweet milky breath gusting and tickling Holly’s skin.

“Have my baby, Holly,” she moaned, “have my baby, be mama.”  Holly wasn’t completely sure she understood what Jay meant, but she felt the urgency of her passion and her body responded in kind.  Chip was sucking hard, grunting softly as she frigged Holly faster, her other hand pumping her own cock if the sound and the way her body quivered were anything to go by.  Holly arched in feverish bliss between them, urging them both on with gasps and sharp cries, cresting ecstatically for long sweet moments until she came with a shudder and a smothered scream.

She was dizzy with heat and pleasure and everything now felt like a hectic dream, Jay still smacking into her, hips striking her soft ass, her drained breast slipping limply from Chip’s mouth as it opened in a long moan and she felt hot come spattering the underside of her swollen belly, and then Jay was grunting and trembling at her full depth, gushing inside her and breathlessly calling her “mama” again and again.

They lay in a tangle together, panting and faintly mewling.  Holly managed to move her hands, one to stroke Chip’s hair and the other to find Jay’s hand and clasp it to her chest.  She couldn’t speak at first until she’d cleared her throat and swallowed hard.  “You are both so good to me,” she murmured.

“We love you, Mama,” Chip said drowsily, stunning her.

“We do,” said Jay, kissing her neck.  Her free hand caressed Holly’s belly again.  

_ They’re just saying that because they’re having this whole…  breeding fantasy.  I don’t need to feel so shaken.  It’s like calling me Mama, I remember now, it’s a diminutive of Mother the humans use, they’re pretending we’re humans and they’re my mates and… and things are different.   _ “I love you too, my darlings,” she whispered, feeling exhaustion and satiation together well up to take her to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Even if she’d managed to account for it to herself, Holly was left unsettled by the declaration of love.  Whenever she was alone she would slip back to stewing over it, to analysing their tones of voice, to questioning whether Chip really spoke for Jay when she said  _ “we _ love you,” to whether the “we” actually meant a lot more people than Chip and Jay only.  It made her feel panicky.  

She’d thought she was coping pretty well with the idea that not all of the Quartzes really liked her yet by reminding herself that all of them were at least prepared to give her a chance, and if she was patient and treated them kindly and above all remembered that she simply could not try to control them, then eventually she could gain their lasting trust and liking could grow from there.  Having to hold that in her head at the same time as the idea that some of them might (if they were speaking literally and not just play-acting) actually  _ love _ her had thrown her into a spin.

Her growing guilt at the way she’d treated them made her pretty sure she wouldn’t deserve for any of them to love her until she’d been a lot kinder for a lot longer, and rather than dwell on that any more it was a relief to escape to the kind of Gems who handled her with a cheerful roughness and plainly enjoyed playfully dominating and humiliating her as much as they enjoyed the physical pleasure she was offering.  

Carnelian was excellent for that; she’d take her off to a private room together with Skinny, slap a cushion on the floor and tell her “Holly, heels.”  She would have to kneel there gripping the heels of her boots, just like the first orgy, watching in helplessly passive arousal while they fucked until Carnie decided it was time to sit on Holly’s face with her sloppy little cunny leaking frothy come.  After Carnie got off that way, she would command Holly to shapeshift a cock and make Skinny happy too; that always resulted in some giggling about the dinky little thing she invariably produced on her first attempt followed by teasing oohs and aahs about the second attempt.  After that they’d take turns riding her, laughing and scolding her, “Don’t you dare come yet, Holly Blue Agate!  You gotta earn it.”

After they were both satisfied and had let her climax at last, they turned relaxed and chummy and lolled around, leaning on and flopping over her as she lay on the floor on the somewhat soggy cushion.

“You should seriously get your dick out more often,” Skinny said, braiding a lock of Carnelian’s hair.  “Songs would be sung in its honour.”

“Nah, she likes being the free-for-all fucktoy too much,” said Carnie.  “Don’tcha, Holls?  Like, it’s more blessed to receive.”

“I bring it out for a select few,” Holly said, trying to sound airy and unembarrassed.  “You two are honoured, really.”

“You got the spooge cannon working really well, though,” said Carnie.  “Definite improvement from your dry first try.”

“You couldn’t just say I improved my ejaculation?” Holly demanded in mock outrage.  “You had to inflict the words ‘spooge cannon’ on us all?”

“Spooge cannon, spooge cannon!” Skinny chanted, drumming her feet on the floor.  “C’mon Holls, we’re just telling you we appreciate you.  I like feeling a big wet gush when we finally let you blow.”

“We could call it a cum geyser if you like that better,” said Carnie.

“How can I  _ hear _ that you’re spelling it c-u-m?” Holly asked.  “Tch!”  It always amused these two when she played up her exasperation with their vulgarity, and honestly she enjoyed the opportunity to be grumpy within safe bounds.

“I think c-o-m-e is the verb and c-u-m is the noun,” said Skinny.  “Like I would never write ‘I’m c-u-m-m-i-n-g.’”

“I would,” said Carnie defiantly.  “And that’s a boring sentence.  I’d write ‘Holly was surrounded by a pack of rutting Quartzes jacking their bulging cocks and c-u-m-m-i-n-g all over her pretty face and her fat melon titties.  One after another they pounded her greedy wet fuckholes until her pussy and her ass were both gaping and dripping thick creamy c-u-m.’”

“Ew!” Skinny said, cackling with ribald laughter.  “Don’t worry, Holly, I got you.  ‘And her cunt ached sweetly from c-o-m-i-n-g so hard and often.’”

“Just then the door burst open!” Carnie improvised.  “It was Jay, acting all knight in shining armour like she does.  ‘Never fear, my divine Holly!’ she cried, ‘I’ve c-u-m to save you from these ruffians!’”

“Another door burst open!” Skinny butted in.  “It was Sharky, acting all beasty-brutey like  _ she _ does.  ‘And I’ve c-u-m to EAT YOU UP!’”

“Hah!” Carnie cried in triumph.  “You said you  _ wouldn’t _ use it as a verb!”

“Well no,  _ I _ wouldn’t,” Skinny said calmly, “but Sharky clearly would.”

“Oh yeah, she totally would.  Sharky would spell it c-u-m  _ all  _ the time just to be dirty.”

“And that’s why she’s so much fun,” Skinny concluded.  “You’re all quiet, Holly!”  She put her hand on Holly’s tummy and jiggled it.  “Wiggle wiggle.  We boring ya?”

“I just couldn’t keep up with the pace of your literary invention,” Holly said, shaking her head.

“We could take turns making up a story you’d like,” Carnie offered, lying down with her head on Holly’s shoulder.  “All spelled right.  Or we could just go down on ya, whatever you feel like.”

“That sounds more relaxing.”

 

The other person she always felt confident would give her a good rough fuck without introducing complex emotional themes was Sharky, who had been showing a somewhat territorial streak lately.  One afternoon when Holly was checking over inventory from the newly arrived supply drone (on one hand it was sort of insulting that Homeworld wouldn’t spare even Rubies to make a Gemmed delivery to the zoo, on the other hand it was a relief that she wouldn’t have to put up a front of “of course I haven’t completely lost my authority and embarked on a relationship with my former subordinates so deviant that even flagrant fusion perverts would think it’s a bit weird” even to the extent that would be necessary to trick Rubies), Sharky came swaggering over and laid one large warm hand on her lower back, not quite on the ass, which was quite subtle for her, but in such a way as to make it clear that ass was always an option.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hello, Cheeky,” said Holly, and gave her bottom a little wiggle to entice.  

“Did you know,” Sharky said casually, “that I have a really great sense of smell?”

“I did not,” said Holly.

“Yep.  In fact, I can smell who you’ve been with last.”

“Well, that would be surprising because I’ve bathed since then.”  She marked off an item on her checklist, although more of her attention was on the hand on her back than on the inventory now.

“Pscht.  You took a quick shower with your buns in.  It’s not just your pussy, it’s all over you.  It’s in your hair.”  Sharky leaned over till her nose brushed Holly’s head and inhaled deeply.  “Exes and Kay.  Yeah?”

“Either you  _ do _ have a very clever nose or, of course, you’ve talked to them today.”

“Haven’t seen ‘em.”  Sharky was still smelling her hair and stroking her back with her thumb.  “You know what else?”

“I couldn’t begin to imagine,” Holly said, smiling to herself.  

“I like it best when you smell like me.”

“You do surprise me.”

Sharky slid her hand down and gave the underside of Holly’s buttock a slow, firm squeeze before shifting over and pressing her fingertips into the cleft, rubbing.

“You’re so subtle with your flirting,” Holly said, tilting her hips.  

“I know, straight out of a courtly romance.  ‘Cept those are all about elite perfectly matched aristocratic Gems and they always fade out with a dot dot dot before they get to the fucking.  Laaaaame.”  

“I’m hearing a lot of literary commentary lately,” Holly mused.

“I’m a deep thinker,” said Sharky, rubbing Holly’s perineum through her pants.  “You busy after this?”  She nodded towards the screen in Holly’s hands.  “Doesn’t look like you’ve got a lot left to do.”

“Oh, you were planning to let me finish?”

“Yeah, I’m also very considerate,” Sharky said with a lopsided grin.  “But I still really wanna take you back to your room and make you smell like me all over.”

“Give me, hmm, ten minutes and then I’ll be all yours.”

_ “Yussssss,”  _ said Sharky, pumping her fist in the air.  She proceeded to try to be unobtrusive in the background while being, as a very large, very purple, very restless Amethyst, by her nature obtrusive.  Holly had a minor struggle not to laugh about all the muffled noise going on behind her — was Sharky doing  _ push-ups?   _ The kind where you bounced up and clapped your hands?  Was she just trying to fill time and burn off excess energy or possibly trying to  _ impress _ her with her vigour?

“All right,” said Holly, returning the completed screen to the drone unit, “everything accounted for, and you — oop!”  As she turned to face Sharky she was caught on her shoulder and hoisted up with her ass in the air.  Sharky was firmly holding both her legs against her own chest.

“Put me down!” Holly snapped.  “This is undignified!”

“That’s why it’s fun!” Sharky said, carrying her effortlessly out of the room.  In the corridor Peek and Vee were engaged in some sort of horseplay with a huge leaf out of the habitats; they stopped, stared and laughed.  “Touch the ass for luck,” said Sharky.

“Luck!” cried Vee, giving it a squeeze.

“I think rubbing is luckier,” said Peek, doing so.

“You’re all  _ lucky _ I can’t get down from here without a fight,” Holly huffed, trying to fold her arms.  “I am  _ choosing _ the path of non-violence.”

“I’m choosing the path of dragging you off to the Holly cave,” said Sharky.  “See ya, suckers.”  She strode off, and actually took a longer way round to Holly’s room to give more people the chance to become lucky.  Holly’s ass was patted, rubbed, slapped, pinched and palpated till its cheeks burned.

“Is all this necessary?” Holly asked as they rounded the corner of the hallway to her room.

“It’s getting you warmed up,” Sharky said, and gave her hip a nip.  “I can always smell when you’ve got the hots, too.”  She took a big sniff and smacked her lips.

“Oh!”  Holly lunged and slapped Sharky on the ass, which was satisfying, but meant she almost overbalanced and fell down her back to land on her head.  Sharky hauled her back up just in time and roared with laughter.

“Oh, you’re trying to fight me now?  I always hoped ya would!”  Sharky barged through the doorway of Holly’s room.  “But I’m warning you, I fight dirty.”  She flung Holly down on the bed and before she could compose herself, flipped her over on her front and slapped her backside with a mighty smack.  Before Holly could recover from  _ that _ she was flipped again and Sharky pounced on top of her with a growl.  She seemed less interested in fighting Holly than in pinning her, laughing and panting, her breasts resting on Holly’s and her hair hanging around their faces.  She pushed her thigh between Holly’s and ground it against her mound, grinning as she gasped.  “You’re not fighting, Holly-dolly.”

“Well, you’re just so overpowering,” Holly said, opening her eyes wide and fluttering her lashes.  Sharky snorted, knowing it was flattery, but Holly felt her relaxing a little and seized the opportunity to wrap her legs tight round Sharky’s hips, crossing her calves and pressing under her bottom with her heels.

“Is  _ this _ you fighting me?” Sharky asked.

“Yes,” Holly said, rocking her hips, “I’m winning.”  She could feel a bulge rising, rubbing against her pussy, the sensation muffled by two layers of uniform but sweet and hot and growing.

“Oh, Holly Boo, this isn’t fighting,” Sharky said, shaking her head, interlacing her fingers with Holly’s as she held her hands flat on the bed.  Holly stuck her tongue out at her and she bent to gnaw at the side of her neck, her breath hot and damp and her sharp teeth prickling.  Holly caught her breath again and kept working her hips.  “Wanna rip your clothes off,” Sharky rumbled.

“I dare you,” Holly breathed.  She was expecting Sharky to tear off her capelet or yank down her pants, but she took the collar of Holly’s top between her teeth and yanked her head away, ripping the silky fabric in a long jagged tear slanting across the middle of her chest.  The diamond badge fastening the capelet popped apart and Holly was left panting, flushed and startled, with one plump breast bared.  Sharky spat out the tattered flap of fabric in her mouth and grinned.  Half with her teeth and half with her hands she tore the top down through its bottom hem, then ripped down the front of Holly’s pants.  She pressed her nose into Holly’s pubic hair and sniffed deeply.

“You don’t — don’t need to  _ smell _ to know now, do you?” Holly panted.

“Course not, I just love the smell of your cunt.”  Sharky flickered her tongue against Holly’s labia before surging up to kiss her mouth, plunging in hungrily.  “Oh Holly,” she breathed against her lips.  “Fuck, you taste good.”

“Where?”

“Everywhere.”

“Won’t you smell like me too?”

“Fuckin’ love smelling like you,” Sharky said.  Her clothes had dissolved and she was pressing the full length of her body against Holly’s, skin to skin, her cock rubbing stiffly against Holly’s wet lips.  “Make you smell like mine,” she mumbled.  Pushing up on her hands and knees, she rolled Holly again onto her belly, ripped apart the back of her pants and smoothed her hands up and down her back, down to grip her hips, her thumbtips fitting into the little dimple indentations above Holly’s buttocks.  Holly felt the warm pressure of her cock nestling between her buttocks, rubbing up and down her soft cleft, and heard Sharky sigh with pleasure.  

Holly gathered the sheet under her in her hands, sliding her knees farther apart and tilting her hips to lift her bottom.  The last time — no, actually the last two times — Sharky had fucked her had been in the pussy, once simply by choice and once because Chip had suddenly yelled “I call ass!” with her hand in the air as if she was answering a question in training, and everyone had been so surprised and amused no one had argued, and by now she was getting eager for Sharky to take her anally again.  It would be that deep hot plunge of sensation, that rough, dark, near-painful pleasure that surged and pulsed and drove her wild but seemingly couldn’t make her come.  She just wanted that, and to feel that Sharky was using her, enjoying her body, in the simplest, greediest, most basic way.

“Oh look,” Sharky said to the room at large, “she wants me to fuck her in the ass.  She’s sticking her big blue ass up in the air just begging me to cram my dick in there.”  She grasped Holly’s buttocks with both hands and squeezed them together around her shaft.

“Mm.  Please.”  Holly twitched her bottom a little from side to side.

“My my my, tell me why.”  Sharky played a rapid rat-tat-tat on Holly’s buttocks with her fingertips as if she were playing a little drum by hand.

“Because it feels so good inside me.”  Holly could feel her face beginning to burn, the downward pull of shame like a hot liquid flowing to pool in the depths of her cunt.  She closed her eyes and sank into it.  “I love your dick.  As soon as you touch me I start feeling hot, wanting it, you put your hands on me and my pussy gets wet and my anus starts tingling and — and fluttering, I love feeling it push inside me and spread and stretch my ass open.  I love feeling absolutely stuffed full with it, so big and thick and hot.”

“That’s a good answer but I’m still thinking about whether I should give it to you.  Convince me.”

_ “Please,  _ Cheeky.”

“C’moooon.  Talk me into it.”

“I love feeling you pumping and grunting and rutting into me, I love you  _ fucking  _ me, filling me up…  I love… love feeling you’ve claimed me and I’m yours and that’s all that matters.  I — I’m yours and I’m just here for you to fu — uh!”  She felt a leap of excitement as her anus was penetrated and whined in disappointment when she realised it was just Sharky’s finger or thumb, gently twirling around.  

“Hey Holly,” said Sharky, casually.  “The sequel to Same Hole.  Two Dicks.”

“What?”  Holly  looked back over her shoulder.  “Oh…”  Sharky had shapeshifted herself a matched pair of cocks one above the other; she was rubbing the upper one in her palm and a trickle of clear goo was escaping from the tip of it and drizzling onto the head of the lower one.

“You asked so nice I think you deserve to be stuffed in both places,” Sharky said, grinning.  “So hold still.  I’m gonna fuck you now.”  Holly clutched her handfuls of the sheet as Sharky slid into her, her mouth falling open in a tremulous moan.

“Now  _ that _ is an interesting sound,” Sharky said, breathing rapidly, her breath hissing between her teeth.  “The taking it in the ass moan and  _ then _ some.   _ Fuck,  _ you feel good.”  She slid her hand up Holly’s back to lightly grip the nape of her neck.  “Oh…  now what’s that about you’re mine and you’re just…”

“Here for you to fuck,” Holly panted.  Sharky was already thrusting hard enough to rock her back and forth on the bed.  She was used to double penetration but the angles were different here, so it felt new and she was rolling with each surge, gasping and wide-eyed.

“Aw Holly, you’re so much more.  You’re here for  _ everyone _ to fuck.  But right now you’re just mine and I love it.  Am I — ah! — am I giving you  _ everything _ you need?”

“Oh yes.  Oh yes!”  She dug her knees down into the mattress, pumping her hips back against Sharky’s double thrusts, grunting softly and feeling delicious tension gather deep in her cunt as it went on, and on, and on.  She could feel the heat of Sharky’s body as she leaned lower over her back, bracing her hands on the bed at Holly’s sides, up on her arms as if she were still doing push-ups, and then Holly felt her tongue swipe across her gemstone, hot and wet and curling.  She inhaled sharply, her head spinning.  Sharky was licking, nipping at the nape and sides of her neck, her teeth sliding and scratching as her body rocked and bounced.

“Oh Sha — Chee — ah!   _ Aah!” _  Holly was trembling, waves of violent joy rolling through her.  She sank down on the bed, moaning weakly as Sharky’s hips shook and she crammed both cocks in to their utmost, spurting convulsively.   _ Dual cannons, _ thought Holly and gave an involuntary snort of laughter.  Sharky’s weight settled on her back, hot and heavy and slick with sweat that stung the scratches on Holly’s neck and shoulders.  She lay still for a while, breathing heavily, before she kissed Holly’s cheek with a smack.

“What made you laugh?” she mumbled.  “I like how it feels in your ass when you laugh.”

“Oh, it’s… it’s really embarrassing,” Holly said, shaking her head slightly.  

“I like it when you’re embarrassed.  You know that.”

“Ummm… oh, it was just a joke I had with Carnie and Skinny.  You know those two.  Carnie referred to a, uh, an ejaculating phallus as a  _ spooge cannon _ and I just thought of it when I felt you coming so…  _ copiously.” _  She shifted her hips; she could feel slick liquid leaking out of her pussy (her ass felt more snugly plugged) and wetting the sheet under her.  “Mmmm.”

“Dirty bitch,” Sharky said affectionately.  

“Me or her?”

“Both.  Skins too.”  She licked the scratches, her tongue rough but soothing.  Holly basked in the attention,  curling and uncurling her toes.

“Sharky?”

“Mm?”

“Would you spell it c-o-m-e or c-u-m?”

“C-u-m, of fucking course.  As in, in a minute I’m gonna pull out and enjoy seeing my cum leaking out of your asshole and pussy.”

“Thank you, Cheeky.  You’ve given me exactly what I needed.”

“That’s what I do best.”  Sharky trailed a long lick up the back of her neck to her gemstone and over it to its pointed tip, making Holly shiver blissfully.  “And now?  You reek of me.”  Holly felt her push herself up and pull back, the lower cock slipping free and the upper coming away with a soft squelching pop.  She felt hands on her buttocks, looked back and found Sharky kneeling between her legs staring avidly.  “Push it out now, Holly Blue.”  

Holly bit her lip, shut her eyes and luxuriated in the sensation of spunk flowing out of her and over tender, flushed skin.  It always felt so  _ hot _ coming from inside her.  “Is it all over me?”

“You’re soaked.  Love seeing those pussy lips squish apart.”  Sharky ran her finger down between them and sucked it clean.

“Mmmm.”  Holly gave a soft, languid murmur and pushed herself up onto hands and knees.

“And now I get to see you drip,” Sharky said gleefully.  Holly looked back at her and couldn’t help smiling.

“You’re so  _ lascivious.” _

“Yeah?  Pervy too,” Sharky said with pride.  

Holly crawled a step or two up the bed, flopped down and rolled over to lie with her head on the pillows, her legs compfortably splayed.  “Are you in the mood to cuddle at all?”

“You got it,” Sharky said.  She threw herself down next to Holly and dragged the blanket over them.  “Sweet sloppy Holly.”  She laid one leg over Holly’s and looped an arm over her waist.  “Hey, does your ass hurt?”

“It does a little,” Holly said.

“Yesss.”

“You’re mean,” Holly chided her, smiling.

“I’m just mildly sadistic.”  She stroked Holly’s cheek surprisingly gently.  “I mean… there’s always that savage bit of me that gets off on hurting you but all the rest of me says I don’t wanna do you any  _ harm. _  Right?”

“I know that by now.  It’s why I trust you to do it.”  

“I know.  I just… it’s good to say it so you know.”  The aggression had gone out of Sharky now.  She was relaxed and heavy-eyed.  “I wasn’t always… I didn’t always know how to keep it in check.”  

“Really?  That’s not what you’ve told me before.”  

“I was talking about how I am now.  Now I’m talking about… before you knew me.”  The contentment might be fading too.  No, not fading, but it was being complicated by something.  

“I don’t need to know about before I knew you, it’s okay,” Holly said hastily.  “We can just leave all that in the past.  I’m not surprised if you don’t want to remember all that bad old Earth business!” she added with a light, nervous laugh.

“But…  _ can _ I tell you?” Sharky asked, and there was a very slight pleading note in her voice that disarmed and troubled Holly.  

“Yes,” she said, then trying to sound more firm, “Yes, of course you can.  Did… did you do something you regret?”

“Well  _ yeah, _ we all did.  We fought in a war.”

“Just as you were made to do.  There's nothing to regret there.”

“Do you think we were made to enjoy it?” Sharky asked.  Again, there was a slight pleading note.

“Of course you should enjoy doing your duty and fulfilling your purpose.  That’s the greatest source of satisfaction you can have.”

“But that applies to everyone, whatever their purpose is.  I mean do you think  _ we,  _ us Quartzes, were made to enjoy  _ hurting?   _ Fucking people up.  I don’t mean anything to do with sex now, I mean fighting.  Are we supposed to enjoy it like that?”

“I — I don’t know,” Holly admitted.  She didn’t know what to do with Sharky’s earnestness, it was so unusual.  

“Because I did.  I really did.  I loved smashing my fist into a face and seeing that pain and fear in the second before they went poof.  I loved seeing that despair when they  _ knew _ they were fucked _. _  I’d keep on fighting to get more of that, and I’d get this, this red mist, it was in my head and I didn’t really know what was happening any more, till I was coming out of it and…”  Her beautiful deep purple complexion looked greyish.  “Sometimes I’d find there were Peridots with tweezers.  And they were picking shards out of my knuckles.  And they took them away because they had some kind of plan for them?  I don’t know.  And I was famous.  I was feared.  I’d run towards the enemy and you could  _ see _ that moment when they knew,  _ oh shit, it’s her, it’s that psycho purple brute,  _ and they would start falling apart from the fear even before I got to them.  I would… you know how you can rip the gem off a body to poof them.  I would do it with my teeth.  They couldn’t believe I would do that.  That was… that was who I was.  That was what I was doing before you knew me.”

“But that’s not who you are  _ now,” _ Holly faltered.  “You’ve — you’ve changed a lot.”

“I wouldn’t’ve changed if I hadn’t come here,” Sharky said.  “When we came here we were just out of the war.  Still in shock over what happened to our Diamond.  Blue Diamond just kind of swept us up and found a place for us.  She just… stuck us here and we were told ‘now your job is to maintain Pink Diamond’s Zoo in her memory,’ and we were all like, the fuck?  How can Gems like us do that?  But we were… we were grateful.  That someone still wanted us after everything went so bad.  After we couldn’t win the war.  Couldn't protect our Diamond.  We didn’t want to disappoint her so we said to each other okay, we just have to do our best and try not to kill the little buggers by accident.  And then  _ you _ walked out and said you were our new commanding officer and…” The haunted look began to fade from Sharky’s eyes and she laughed a little, shaking her head.  “You were so fuckin’ scared of us.  You looked at us like we were a nightmare.  We weren’t even  _ being _ scary.”

Holly took a deep breath.  “You were my first command,” she admitted for the first time.  “I wasn’t even supposed to work directly with troops, I was trained for the diplomatic service, to be a bodyguard for Blue Diamond.  When she chose me, just me, to take care of the Zoo, something that mattered so much to her, to help her in her great grief, I… I just wanted to repay her trust in me.”

“Ha!  We thought so but we also thought you’d never admit it.  I just won a  _ really _ old bet with Ellie.”  Sharky brushed a sweat-damp curl off Holly’s cheek.  “So we had that much in common.  We didn’t wanna let Blue Diamond down.  And I guess it makes sense, you were scared of us, you probably just had a crash course on how to deal with us and that was it, so you engaged turbo-bitch mode.”

“And never had the sense to step down from it,” Holly said ruefully.  “They told me I  _ had _ to be severe, that if I gave you an inch you’d take a mile, that… you know, the irony is that I couldn't even go as far as I was supposed to.  My trainer, Honey Yellow Agate, gave me a demonstration with a Quartz she was having to recondition, this vast… I actually think she said she was a Beta Gem, which must mean she was about the only real success they had.  She was big like  _ you.”   _ She laid her hand on the powerful arm encircling her waist. 

“I know who you must mean,” Sharky said, looking surprised, “but I’d always thought she must've been shattered or she would've been sent here.”

“Well, she was still alive just after the retreat,” Holly said, “but I don't know about after that.”

“You need to tell the Betas that,” Sharky said urgently. 

“I — I don't think they'd want to hear that she was in the state I saw her,” Holly said.  “She wasn't doing well.”

“If she was alive they'd want to know,” Sharky said with conviction.  “I wonder why she ended up under Yellow Diamond instead of under Blue with us?  Still, things were crazy back then.  I'm just glad she didn't get left behind.”

“Did you know her?  Was she your friend?”  Holly asked hesitantly. 

“I never met any of the Betas before here,” Sharky said, shaking her head, “but everyone knew  _ about _ her.  She was the  _ orange _ psycho brute,” she added with a half-smile.  “Gave me a run for my money in the kill counts.”  There was a heavy pause, and she looked as if she regretted saying that.  “Holly… did you ever kill anyone?”

“No,” Holly said, and felt both useless and shamefully relieved.  

“I hope you can stay that way,” said Sharky, and tried to smile again.  

“You were doing your duty and fulfilling your purpose,” Holly said desperately.  “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“You were doing your duty too.  Do you have regrets?  Like about  _ how _ you did it?”

“You know I do,” Holly mumbled.  

“Same,” said Sharky simply.  To Holly's horror, her eyes were welling up, although her lips were fixed in a tight smile.  She rolled towards Sharky and hugged her tight, with no idea what else she could say to comfort her.  “It's okay,” Sharky said sheepishly.   “Don't worry, I just get a little wussy when I really think about it.  I really just wanted to try and talk about the difference between that kinda… that out of control hurting for power and being able to do it in a way we’re both up for and it never goes too far, but I went and made it all deep and meaningful,” she concluded, scoffing.  She fell quiet a few moments more and then gave a deep, wet, rattling sniff.  “All good now.”

“Can I ask you one more thing?” Holly said.  She couldn't see Sharky's face; her own face was buried in Sharky's shaggy hair.  She hoped she wasn't making things worse again.  

“Go for it,” said Sharky.  

“You said you wouldn't have changed if you hadn't come here.  What made the difference for you?  Because it certainly wasn't my inspiring leadership.”  She tried to put a light laugh into her voice at the end and to her relief Sharky chuckled back.  

“It was two things,” Sharky said.  “It was the peace here.  We're always safe.  Bit by bit we could all just come off high alert all the time, you know?  Life wasn't a fight to survive.  There was no one  _ to _ fight.  You, well, we could put up with you.  You were no Shadow Agate.  No offence.”

“None taken, I think.”  Holly knew Shadow Agate was a highly regarded officer, one Honey Yellow had spoken of with approval.  It unsettled her to be pleased to hear that there was no comparison between them.  She'd admired Honey so, her strength and authority and charisma, so like the Diamond she served, and as she'd left the reconditioning cell she had been frantically telling herself to harden up, to be strong like that and lose the weak, sick feeling in her belly.  “And the second thing?”

“That was the work.  You know all that shit about how powerful and satisfying it was when I could just fucking annihilate people?  That's nothing even close to what it's like to keep something alive.  Those little humans, I’m not gonna get all mushy about them but — but when you take care of something alive, you protect it, you get to see it grow up healthy, I don't think there can be anything better than that.  You know you did a good thing.  You know there's something good about  _ you. _  That's why I said if I ever got to speak to Blue Diamond I’d want to thank her.  I don't kid myself she knows or cares anything about me, she didn't give me this job to help me, she lives on a totally different level from me… but what she did saved me and my friends.  Nothing will ever take away from that.”

Holly screwed up her face, trying not to let tears fall, not to make Sharky cry again.  She wanted to be a comfort to her but instead Sharky was stroking her back as if she needed the comfort.  

“Holly,” Sharky said in a very small voice, for her.  

“Yes?”

“Does this change things?”

“What could it change?” Holly asked, honestly confused, and squeaked as Sharky hugged her unexpectedly tightly.  

“Well, you  _ could've  _ said I’m a cruel monster and you never want me to touch you again,” she mumbled.  

“I’m in no position to say anything like that,” Holly pointed out.   _ “I  _ was cruel.”

“No, it's not — fuck,  _ I  _ don't have to  _ put up with  _ you because I haven't always been a decent person.”  Sharky pulled back from the hug to look into Holly's face, her own face still flushed and teary-eyed.  “It's not like that.  I’ve just known for a while that if we could change that much so could you.  And you're proving me right every day.  You finally had a reason to really want to change and I don't care if it was ‘cuz you were scared shitless about the future.  Look how good the future’s gonna be because you did, right?  Oh fuck, Holls, don't you cry too.”

“Sorry,” said Holly, crying unabated.  “It's just such a beautiful sentiment.  Even with all the fuck and shit.”

“So stop crying,” Sharky said, starting to laugh through her own tears.  “You big blue wuss.”  She kissed Holly and they slipped into an incoherent exchange of kisses, tears, laughter and attempts to speak that ended in Sharky rolling on top of her and into her, their bodies forming a kind of knot with Holly's legs locked around Sharky's waist and her arms tangled in her hair.  It was quick and messy and a little painful after the previous rough coupling and afterwards they lay still, breathing heavily, eyes closed. 

After a while Sharky said, “You won't tell the others I cried, will you?”

“It will stay between us,” Holly said.  She was starting to wonder if she could get into a more comfortable position without just having to heave Sharky off of her; the current position was reminding her of how Little Voice would advise female humans post-mating to lie back and hold their knees to their chests for a while.  It was supposed to help the semen pool on the cervix or something.  She had semen pooled on her tummy; in her haste Sharky had pushed the lower cock into her pussy, leaving the upper one rubbing above it.  It had felt wonderful on her clitoris but it had made for a particularly messy climax.  

Sharky nuzzled against Holly’s nose, rested their foreheads together and softly, gruffly said, “I love you.”

It snapped her right out of her vague, overlapping trains of thought about orgasms and conception and sticky warmth and sexy mess and feeling squashed and cramped but deeply contented.  There hadn’t been any play-acting or pretending.  Sharky was speaking as herself to Holly herself, just after being quite harrowingly honest.  She couldn’t leave those words hanging between them unanswered.  How was it even supposed to feel when you really loved someone, despite every difference between you, not the idealised way you would love your Diamond?  Was it just the joy in being with them and the need to feel that you could always be together?  She’d have to hope it was.

“I love  _ you,” _ she whispered back.  “But I don’t deserve you.”

“No, you don’t deserve love.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I —”

“No, I mean love doesn’t happen because you deserve it.  If it did, we’d all be screwed,” Sharky said.  “Or… not be screwed at all, I guess.”  She pulled out and rolled off to lie beside Holly, relaxed and dreamy-eyed, and pressed her nose into Holly’s hair, breathing in deep.  “For now at least, you’re mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of this chapter:  
> Holly: ah time for some nice uncomplicated rough sex with Sharky  
> *boink*  
> Sharky: as a level 4 fuckbuddy you have unlocked my tragic backstory
> 
> [The story of Honey Yellow Agate is flagrantly stolen from molded-from-clay because we're friends.](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/post/158425804092/a-tale-of-two-agates)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some fun, some filth and some harrowing angst, the usual.

A new routine was getting established for the garrison of the Zoo now that the rules around Holly were pretty familiar and well bedded in.  Holly was definitely well bedded in.  Her room had gone from being a sanctum where no subordinate would dare enter to a place people popped in and out of quite freely, to the extent that she'd had a little sign made to put outside for when she wanted a little peace, “Privacy, please,” which Kay had augmented with a little naked drawing of her looking coy and only just covering her private parts with a barely sufficient little towel.  

Kay’s artistic output of the most lurid pornography starring Holly had continued unabated and almost every hallway now featured one or more panels of her work.  Holly had said, a little snippishly, “I don't know why you don't just paint murals to cover the entire walls,” and Kay had looked at her in surprise and said, “Because these we can just take down and hide if anyone comes visiting.  I don't want to get you in trouble because some VIG’s Pearl gets lost and sees a full hallway of you getting DPed.”

“Oh,” Holly had said, and then, “Oh, that's really very considerate.”

“I mean imagine if some rando saw  _ this,” _ Kay said, unveiling a triptych featuring oral, anal and vaginal sex in sequence with Holly getting progressively more dishevelled and goopy.  

“Oh good grief,” said Holly, looking at it through her fingers.  “Well, um, you’ve… you render the skin tones very well, there's always a sort of… translucence and depth of colour and that makes the, ah, the shapes of the bodies appear both more solid and softer.  The, um, the curves.”  Even if she was embarrassed to look at them, Kay clearly put a lot of care into her paintings and Holly was deliberately looking for nice things to say about them.  

“Aw, Holly!”  Kay gave her a hip bump.  “You know I really try to show how pretty you are and how happy you look.  Things like there, where you're eating puss and you're looking up with those big baby blues and your expression is just really sweet.  That's taken from life, you know?  You just look up at whoever it is like there's nothing you'd rather do, like… you look  _ adoring, _ it's so damn cute.”

“Oh,” said Holly, blushing harder if possible.  “Well, you’ve captured how I feel in the moment, then.  Very observant of you.”

“I’ve seen another side of you from this,” Kay said, a little slowly as if thinking aloud.  “I mean, if you were faking you’d’ve faked this from the start, right?  But it's grown.  You’ve been getting into it more and more.  That sounds weird and dumb, though.  Like because of the way you eat me out I trust you more?  Whatever.”  She snickered, looking away.  

“I don't think,” Holly began to say, but was cut off. 

“You entertaining tonight?” Kay asked.  “Entertaining” had become the jokey euphemism for Holly taking someone to bed to spend the whole night with her alone; it was held to be outside the scope of the anti-hogging rule because it was by invitation and there was also a faction that held that Rule Two only truly applied during a gangbang.  Then there were debates about what constituted a quorum for a gangbang, and it all got a bit pedantic and Zirconian after a while.  

“No,” Holly said, “not yet, but that could change.”  She cast a sidelong glance at Kay under her lashes.  “Would you like to be entertained?”

“Heck yes,” said Kay, beaming.  

“Would you like to bring Ellie or Exes too?”  They were Kay’s closest friends, as far as Holly could tell.  

“Hmm… maybe.”  Kay turned towards her, hooking her forefinger into the waistband of Holly’s pants and sliding it from side to side, looking up at her with a teasing smile.  “Nah, I feel like a solo sesh.  Get some artistic inspiration.”

 

There seemed to be a general, easygoing acceptance that Holly’s most frequent overnight guests were Jay, Sharky and increasingly often Chip.  She had started to think of them as the three loves, the three who had  _ said _ they loved her and that she was becoming gradually more sure she had grown to love.  Love was the sweet ache in her chest and the warm peace of lying in their arms; it was the anxious need to do all she could to keep them safe and the growing faith that they would do the same for her.  She had a love growing in her for all of them, but it was most intense and particular with those three.  

There were certain physical features of them that acted almost as a push-button for that ache when they caught her attention; that one spiral curl in Jay’s hair and the dark arch of her eyebrows, the way she arched and stretched her body to get comfortable; the jagged edge of Sharky’s smile and the massive curves of her thighs, the rumble and purr and rasp of her voice; Chip’s button nose and pert bottom, her sweet, faltering smile that would bloom into a broad, open grin once she relaxed.   _ Oh my stars I love you, _ she would think, and sometimes had to actually press her hand on her chest where the ache was strongest.  

“What’s the matter?” Jay asked when she woke up and caught her doing it.  “You got heartburn?”

“I don’t have a heart to burn,” Holly said, flustered, “that’s entirely a human complaint.”

“Holly,” said Jay, smiling up at her from the pillow, “you were leaning over me while I slept, pressing your hand on your chest and  _ gazing _ down on me.  Obviously you don’t have heartburn, I was teasing you.”

“That’s not very nice of you,” Holly huffed.  

“You lo-ove me,” Jay chanted, raising one hand and poking the middle of her chest where her hand had been, just above her breasts.

“Of course I do, you know that.”  Holly flumped down and rolled over with her back to Jay.

“Holly Blue Agate is in lo-ove, pass it on.”  Jay snuggled up to her back, her voice bubbling with an undercurrent of laughter.  

“You shouldn’t make fun of my tender feelings.  They’ve only just developed, what if you stunt them with your mockery?”

“Aw, Holls, you know I don’t mean it like that.”  Jay wrapped one arm around her and squeezed her tight.  “It’s just so  _ funny. _  Not funny like I think you’re dumb for feeling that way.  I  _ love _ you loving me.  Funny ‘cuz it’s so incredibly unlike what anyone had any reason to expect, but here it is!”  She kissed the nape of Holly’s neck and softly nuzzled the base of her gemstone.  “You’re so precious to me, baby.”

Grudgingly, Holly turned her head and kissed the gemstone set into the top of the arm wrapped over her body.  “That’s just it.  You’re precious to me and it’s such a new feeling.  It — it aches, it’s as if I’m so  _ full _ I might  _ split.” _

“But you  _ love _ being super full.  You  _ love _ that ache.”

“I know, I know…”

“Can you still feel my hand inside you?” Jay breathed against her shoulder.   “From before?”

“Oh my stars.”

“What?”

“You just made my pussy  _ clench.   _ Again.”

Jay giggled.  “I remember  _ that. _  The squeeze and the  _ gush. _  Your pussy’s so  _ strong.”   _ She trailed her hand down to Holly’s belly and cupped it low, just above the thick, curling hair.  “There’s a lot of power in here.”

“Mm.”  Holly laid her hand over Jay’s, stroking it with her thumb, shifting her hips as she felt a growing warmth and slick wetness.  “You’re imagining me pregnant again, aren’t you?”

“Everything’s hotter if I imagine you’re pregnant,” Jay said.  “Although I hasten to add I don’t think I’d be fisting you if I knew you were.  Seems a little rough for a pregnant pussy.”

“Wouldn’t it go through something even rougher in the end?”

“It can get rough, yeah, but if cute little humans can do it I know a big strong Gem like you could.  Plus we’ve got all kinds of ways to make it easier for ‘em.  That’s one of the things I do want to keep Little Voice on for, that hypnotic thing so they’re so much less aware of the pain and they don’t really remember it.  Everything goes well, afterward they just know they’re all tuckered out and sore.  Anything goes wrong, we intervene straight away.”

Holly laughed.  “Jay, you’re talking as if I’ll really have to do it and you’re trying to reassure me.”

Jay chuckled too, nuzzling her shoulder.  “Yeah, I got a little carried away.  But you know I’d be there to help you, right?  Rub your back and hold your hand?”  She interlaced her fingers with Holly’s.  “Tell you I love you, and I’m so proud of you, you’re being so brave, our baby has such an amazing mama?”

“Are you getting an erection thinking about me giving  _ birth?” _ Holly giggled.  She could feel it prodding against her bottom.

“It’s not the  _ birth _ part so much as the  _ strength _ and  _ courage _ and  _ love _ and incredibly powerful pussy.”  Jay nudged the head of her cock between Holly’s thighs, rubbing against her labia.  Holly pressed her thighs together lightly and angled her hips back, smiling contentedly, but was surprised to feel Jay’s stroke slow down and stop.  “Hey,” she said, “come to think of it.”

“Hmm?”

“Your pussy is super strong.  You could totally push out a baby.  Or anything else.  What if we put something in you that you  _ could _ push out?  Not too big, just something to give you a stretch and that deep-inside massage you like.”

“Like  _ what?” _ Holly asked, baffled.  “I mean… that would probably feel good, but what?”

“I dunno,” said Jay.  “It’d need to be round and smooth, obvs.  What about… a smooth stone?  We’ve got lots in the habitats.  The water in the lagoons polishes ‘em smooth.”

“I’m not sure I want something in my pussy that’s soaked in the water all the humans bathe in.”

“Well, we purify it all the time, but fair point.  Some of the fruit!  Those oval topaz melons.  Smooth hard skins.”

“What if I squeeze down too hard and smash it?”  The golden-yellow topaz melons were engineered both as balanced, palatable nutrition and as a form of behavioural enrichment — breaking them open was a challenge that turned into a game for the humans, but what was a challenge for human strength wasn’t necessarily for a Gem.

Holly felt Jay shrug.  “You push it out and take a shower, I guess.  It’s not gonna hurt you.  Plus it’d be hilarious to use that because topaz melons are like the top food recommended for pregnant humans, they’re loaded with folic acid and iron and stuff for exactly that.”

“Or we could be naughty and use the matter fabricators to make something just for the purpose,” Holly ventured.  “They’re all tuned up and working at full capacity again, yes?”

“Oh my stars Holly Blue Agate, you are  _ the naughtiest,” _ Jay said gleefully, grinding her hips against Holly’s bottom.  “Makes my dick even harder.”

“Hold on, hold on.”  Holly pulled away and rolled over to face her.  “I want kisses at the same time.”

_ “All _ the kisses,” Jay promised, pushing her onto her back and pulling Holly’s legs up on either side of her hips.  Her lips were warm and wet and her tongue coursed against Holly’s, hot and sleek.  “Put me inside you,” she breathed against Holly’s mouth.  

Holly reached between them, found the thick shaft of Jay’s cock and squeezed it in her palm.  “Do you want to make me pregnant?”

“Oh  _ fuck _ yes.”  

“Come in, my darling.”  She guided the thick, blunt head into place and grunted softly as Jay slipped in.  

“You feel  _ so _ good,” Jay panted, and pressed her lips to Holly’s as she surged in.  The ache in Holly’s chest surged too, stronger and sweeter than the slight fading soreness in her cunt, and she locked her legs around Jay’s body, whimpering her name.

“You want to have my babies?” Jay murmured, and kissed her before she could answer, tracing the soft inner borders of her lips with her tongue-tip, sinking into a deep, open kiss as she rocked her hips, drawing up far enough to feel as if her cock would slip free before plunging back in to its full length.

“Oh yes…  _ please… _  my Jay, my beautiful…”  She faltered, still feeling her way.  “Give me a strong, beautiful baby, like you.  C — curly hair — ah!”  The pleasure was growing stronger, fiercer, driving her to move faster against Jay’s stroke, breathing rapidly as sweat bloomed on their skins.

“Pretty blue eyes,” Jay breathed.  “Oh Holly-dolly, sweet Mama, love you, Mama, oh…”  Her hips rolled and her mouth caressed Holly’s, slurping softly, all so lush and wet and messy.  Little high-pitched cries rose up in Holly’s throat, bursting into Jay’s mouth as the hot joy mounted deep inside her.  Jay’s cock pumped into her eager, tingling cunt and she felt a little spasm, like the bud of an orgasm that swelled until it burst.  She clung to Jay, dazed and blissful, her body rocked by the powerful thrusting that culminated in tremors and hot liquid pulses.  The tenderness overwhelmed her again, feeling Jay melt in her arms, in her body, all that strength and energy going limp.

“I love you,” she whispered, repeating the words like a charm.  “I love you more and more all the time.”  

“Mmm.”  Jay lifted her head and kissed Holly’s brow.  A look of concern crossed her flushed face.  “Baby, you’re crying.  Was I too rough?”

“I — no, I just — my eyes watered, I…”  Holly blinked and sniffed and tried to be honest.  “I’m just emotional,” she said, “not hurt.  And I’m actually happy.”

“Aw,” Jay said, her lips curling in a smile.  “Your tender feelings?”

“Yes, they’re silly like that.”

“They’re good” — kissing the tears away from the corner of her left eye — “and sweet” — the right eye — “and real” — settling on her mouth.  Another curling smile.  “Also you’re getting so pregnant right now.”  

_ “You _ are silly,” Holly said with a quiet, indulgent laugh, stroking back Jay’s tumbled hair.

 

It took some fretting before Holly worked up her nerve to call a meeting of the Betas about their lost comrade.  She chose the wardroom where briefings were always held, hoping to make it clear that it was a neutral, formal kind of meeting, not for any salacious purpose.  She was fully dressed, for one thing.  They all looked a bit confused about that.

“So what’s the deal, Holly?” Skinny asked, lounging in her chair with one leg pulled up, her hands looped around her ankle.

“Uhh, well, I need to tell you about something,” Holly began, steepling her hands together.  “It’s awkward to bring it up because I’ve known it for a long time but didn’t realise I should tell you.  Then it came up by chance in an unrelated conversation with Sharky and she thought I definitely should.  I trust her judgement so I will.  I just — I hope you won’t be angry or upset with me but if you are I apologise in advance.”

Amber eyes exchanged puzzled glances.  “You know something about  _ us?” _ Bee asked.

Holly tried tucking her hands behind her back; that always made her feel more capable.  “As you know, you are the only survivors of the ill-fated Beta Kindergarten constructed on Earth during the Rebellion.”

“No duh.”  There was a general murmur of assent that this was, indeed, no duh.

“Well, what I have to tell you is that you may not be.”  That got everyone’s attention; at once they were all sitting up straighter, eyes wider and more sharply focused on her.  “This is old information!  Please don’t get worked up.  You see, shortly before I came here I was given a short intensive training course in management and discipline of Quartzes.”

“Bitch lessons,” said Carnelian, nodding.

“Quite,” said Holly, deciding to let that slide.  “This was on Homeworld.  It was a time of some upheaval with Gems recently returned from Earth having to resettle, and of course everyone was very badly shaken by what had happened to Pink Diamond, so it was imperative to restore order and morale through strong, authoritative leadership.”  She hesitated.  “That was what they told us, anyway.  That we had to be very stern, very firm, and not indulge any emotional outbursts.  Dwelling on what had happened would only impede our development in this bold new era and so everyone had to pull themselves together.  Gems who didn’t were disciplined.  That meant… quite a lot of returned soldiers.  I’m glad you were sent directly here and missed it.  I’m glad it didn’t happen to  _ you.” _

“But it did?  I mean, it happened to some of us, some other Betas?” Skinny asked, leaning forward.

“I only know about one,” Holly said.  She wished so much that she didn’t have to describe this but she also knew that now she’d begun telling there was no getting out of giving them the whole story, as well as she could remember.  “She was used as a demonstration subject by Honey Yellow Agate, my superior who trained me.  She had been very… recalcitrant and was brought in for reconditioning.”

“Who?”  “Did you get her name?”  “Who was it?”  “Was she okay?”  “What happened?”  They all clamoured at once until Carnelian abruptly stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled sharply.  

“Pipe down and let her tell us!” she shouted in the startled quiet.  The larger Gems exchanged glances, and a few bristled a little, but they subsided and stared expectantly at Holly again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sure Honey Yellow did say a cut code but I’ve forgotten it.  You  _ know _ how bad I am with names.  I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it would be important.”  Holly’s hands had stolen round to her front again and were plucking at each other anxiously.

“Can you describe what she looked like?” Skinny asked.  “We remember everyone.”

“Everyone,” someone else muttered.  

“Yes,” Holly said with relief, “she was very distinctive.   _ Very _ large and strong and handsome, with a stripe across her face, and one hand and arm dark orange-red up to the elbow, and a faceted nose — you know the angular gemstones that the very best Jaspers have?”  Then she chided herself for being so tactless, since not one of them had a faceted gem, but they were all staring at her in wonder, the slight apparently unnoticed.

“9-2QM,” said Bee softly.

“The Mountain,” said Skinny.  “The best of all of us.”

“Pebble,” said Carnelian, looking tearful.  

“She’s alive!” Skinny cried out, bounding out of her chair in a scramble of long angular limbs.  “Guys, the Mountain’s okay!  I  _ told _ you, I  _ knew _ even if she got separated from us she  _ couldn’t _ be broken!  Oh my gosh, Holly, thank you!”

“Holly  _ didn’t _ say she was okay,” Carnelian pointed out.

“Yeah,” said KT, who had been silent until now, frowning and clasping her hands together, one fist pressed into the opposite palm.  “What was happening to her?  What does reconditioning mean?”

Holly paused, feeling grimly guilty.  “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this.  She was… she was beaten.  Repeatedly.  For insisting that she had to find you.  Demanding to go back to Earth and look for you.  Saying that she wouldn’t leave you behind.”  

Tears spilled from Carnie’s eyes.  “That’s her all right.  Pebs would never leave anyone behind.  I’ve seen her carry two exhausted Gems off the battlefield on her back.”

“What happened?” KT asked urgently, her voice hoarse.  “Beating wouldn’t make any difference to the Mountain.”

“I’m afraid it did,” Holly said.  “She did… resist very… bravely.  The thing is, if you haven’t met Honey Yellow Agate it’s difficult to explain about the  _ force _ of her personality.  She… I really don’t want to tell you this, it’s just — just upsetting.”

“You  _ have _ to tell us now!”  “What the fuck happened?”  “Did she  _ kill _ her?”

“All right!” Holly cried, holding up her hands.  “All right, I’m sorry.  While we were there, Honey Yellow Agate beat your friend and choked her, repeatedly, almost to the point of passing out.  She kept doing it because your friend wouldn’t repeat what she told her to say.”  She had a terrible memory for names but she had heard those words so many times in that terrible, stark little cell that they came back at once.  “Every Gem is made for a purpose – to serve the order of the Diamonds.  Those who cannot fit inside this order must be purged.  You suffer because it's what you deserve.  The rest of that Beta garbage are in splinters because it’s what they deserve.  The only way to redeem yourself is to discard them and to dedicate yourself completely to the Diamonds.”

Their faces were terrible, all the more so because their eyes were just like 9-2QM’s not long before she broke, hollowed out with pain and confusion.  Her eyes were dry to the very last.  She had sobbed, though, huge, raw sobs that sounded as if they tore her throat.  At last she had said, in a hoarse, gravelly voice that was a shadow of her earlier roars, “Every Gem is made for a purpose – to serve the order of the Diamonds.  Those who cannot fit inside this order must be purged.  I suffer because it’s what I deserve.  The rest of that Beta garbage are in splinters because it’s what they deserve.  I — I discard them and I dedicate myself completely to the Diamonds.”

“There,” Honey had said, “that wasn’t so hard, was it?  At last you’re being sensible.”  9-2QM was kneeling on the floor, her huge hands curled uselessly between her knees, her shaggy head hanging.  Honey put her hand on her head and pushed her over sideways, and she lay there silently, breathing slowly, her hair draped over her face.  Honey turned to face Holly and smiled.  “And that’s how we do it,” she said.  “She’ll be back on her feet in no time.”

Holly had felt sick then and she felt sick now.  Then the sickness had been fear because she knew she would be expected to do that too and knew just as surely that she couldn’t.  Now it was disgust with her past self who had stood there and watched and never raised the slightest objection to the cruelty in front of her.  She’d tried to believe that it was justified.  She’d managed to convince herself it was necessary to master a brute as stubborn as 9-2QM and make her useful.  Now she saw the hurt in the prisoner’s eyes reflected back at her by people she cared for and felt it herself.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.  “I’m sorry, I should have done something.  It just — it didn’t even occur to me that I could.”  They were turning to each other, clinging, bunching together for comfort in the way that came so naturally to them, Betas together.  An Agate was the last person they would want around them now.  “I should go,” she said, and turned to leave.

Someone punched her just above the knee.  She looked down startled, and found Carnelian glaring up at her.  “Don’t you dare,” she growled.  “Don’t you dare drop a bomb like that on us and just  _ leave!” _

“I — I’m so sorry, I don’t know what I can do,” Holly said helplessly.  

“Little Voice says,” Carnie began, and stopped, scrunching her eyes closed and screwing up her face in pain.  

It seemed impossible that this was really what she was asking for, and Holly was all ready to be punched again, probably in the face, but that would almost be a relief.  She knelt down and tried to hug Carnelian.  She lunged forward with a sob and buried her face in Holly’s shoulder.  For a moment Holly froze and then she managed to gather Carnie in and hold her tight.  “I’m so sorry,” she repeated, beginning to cry herself, “I’m sorry.”  

There was a lot of crying, and gradually everyone formed a kind of cluster on the floor, sitting or kneeling and leaning together.  After a while the tears began to ebb and the Betas began to talk about 9-2QM.  They seemed to want to tell Holly all about her, and to remind each other of what they all knew.  

“She was so kind.  She’d never let anyone get down on themselves.”

“She helped me figure out how to fight even though I’m the wrong shape.  Practised with me for hours.”

“I saw her erupt, in the middle of a Crystal Gem raid.  She was incredible.  Burst out of the rock like a solid ton of screaming orange vengeance.”

“Best hugs bar none.”

“Fuck, yeah.  When the Mountain held you you knew nothing could ever touch you.”

“She was my Pebble,” said Carnelian wistfully, and wiped her nose on Holly’s shoulder.  She was sitting in her lap now.  

“Only Carnie could ever call her that,” Bee said to Holly with a watery smile.  “The day she came out, after the fighting was over, she saw Carnie and she just looked shocked at how little she is, and Carnie scowled up at her and said, ‘What’re you lookin’ at, ya pebble?’  The Mountain blinked and then she just threw her head back and laughed.  I loved her laugh.”

“She was so ticklish!  If the Crystals had known about that we’d’ve been finished.”

“Is it like disrespectful while we’re all remembering her to say she had a spectacular ass?”

“No way, that ass deserved all the respect in the world.”

Skinny wiped her eyes and sniffed hard.  “I know she’s still alive.  If all that couldn’t break her, nothing could.  She’s still out there somewhere and someday she’ll find us.  Just like XM!”

“RIght on,” said Carnie.  She lifted her head from Holly’s shoulder.  “You got anything else you wanna tell us?  Anyone else hidden away?”

Holly shook her head.  “That was the only thing.  Can you forgive me?”

Carnie sighed.  “It’s all a long, long time ago and things have changed so much.  There’s no point being mad at you for shit you didn’t know, or for being weak back then.  But can you tell me, if you ever get a chance, if you ever hear anything else about her or see any way you could help us find her, even if you have to go against someone like that Honey, can we count on you now?”

“Yes,” Holly said.  She couldn’t say anything else.  She couldn’t imagine how she’d actually be able to follow through, how she could ever be that brave and that deranged, but she knew she somehow would.  Love was terrifying.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giraffodil was dismayed at the lack of detail on Holly's earlier date with Kay, and I realised I'd like to spend some more time with her too.

Holly was beginning to wonder if Kay would ever put in an appearance and whether her dignity required that she get offended at possibly being stood up a second time.  That wasn’t supposed to happen.  All right, she hadn’t exactly missed out the other night, she had just walked out into the corridor, waited two minutes, and along had come Gee, whistling cheerfully and entirely amenable to being seduced.  Still, she’d allowed Kay one postponement and now she was late.  It set a poor precedent.  It was enough to make her pout, sitting in the middle of her bed wearing something new she’d conjured up, a filmy slip whose fluffy hemline bobbed just at the level of her bottom.  She’d thought Kay would appreciate it; she was the one with artistic sensibilities.

Finally the door chimed and she bounced to attention.  “Come in!” she called out eagerly.  The door opened and Kay came through with a bundle under her arm that she dropped against the wall, striding over to the bed and abruptly dropping to her knees, bowing her head over a salute.  

“O great and forgiving and hopefully still very horny Holly Blue, I’m really sorry I had to bail on you the other night.”

“I understand,” Holly said, pleased with the opportunity to be gracious.  “It was your duty, one of your little charges needed you.  What was it again?  A medical emergency?”

“Yeah, but he’s gonna be fine,” Kay said cheerfully, dropping her salute immediately and looking up with a grin.  “Poor little guy!  Fractured his penis.”

“He  _ what?” _

“Yeah, he was freaking out, needed me to hold his hand and tell him it was all gonna be okay while Exes did the repairs.”  She leaned her elbows on the foot of the bed, looking up at Holly.  

“No, how does one fracture a  _ penis? _  It doesn’t have bones!”

“Oh!  He was fooling around with Jay-10 —”

“With  _ Jay?” _

“Jay- _ Ten, _ Holls, keep up.  You know the human codes!  Anyway, so Wy-6 and Jay-10 were fooling around, and she was getting into his lap but she slipped and she sat down on his dick super awkwardly and they heard this  _ snap _ and then he was freaking out because his poor little dick was  _ bent _ and it hurt like crazy and  _ she _ was freaking out because  _ he _ was upset and she didn’t understand what had happened, and yeah, they were both pretty much in hysterics.”

“Good grief,” said Holly.  “Will he... recover?”  Wy-6 was quite fertile and robust and it would be a shame to have to count him out of the breeding programme.

“Oh, totally.  We repaired all the damage and he just needs to rest awhile and get over the shock.  He just really needed the moral support, y’know?  Someone big and warm to make him feel like everything’s under control?  He was  _ crying _ and carrying on and saying he was  _ doomed _ never to Choosen again, and his life was just one bad feel after another, and I gave him a cuddle and told him sure, he’s had some rough luck lately but his life before this was happy and it’s gonna be happy again.  He felt better after that.  But then he got a semi from me cuddling him and he was like ow ow ow so I pulled it back to a pat on the head.”

“You know,” Holly said, “you  _ could _ just go back to tranquillising them when things like that happen.  What good does it do him to experience something that upsetting?”

“We just… we think they can learn to deal with more than they used to.  We’re still gonna protect them.  We gave him some hypno to take his mind off the pain.  He’ll be fine.  Enough about  _ him, _ I wanna see  _ you.” _  Kay crawled up on the bed and knelt facing Holly.  “You look so pretty.  Never seen you change your clothes before.”

“Well, um, Chip was encouraging me.  She was asking me to describe a dress that Cyanne wears in… in one of my little stories.”  Holly hesitated.  She didn’t expect Kay to think much of her literary output.  “She was trying to draw it.  I couldn’t really get the idea across in words so I tried to show her.”

“No way.  You were modelling for her?  Sly Chippy, getting in ahead of me!”  She cast an admiring eye over Holly’s body.  “I didn’t realise Cyanne dressed so slutty.  I like her better this way.”

“This is, well, a sluttification of what I first had in mind.  I made it shorter and more… diaphonous.”

Kay smiled.  “That’s such a  _ Holly _ word for see-through.”

“You, er, you didn’t like Cyanne as she was?”  Holly was annoyed with herself for following this line.  It wasn’t as if she was going to hear anything good; she was fairly sure only Chip liked her story uncritically and everyone else viewed it with varying degrees of amusement or benign contempt.

“Hmm.”  Kay made a thoughtful face, pushing her lips out and to one side, crinkling her nose.  “I wouldn’t say I really  _ disliked _ her.  I just felt like she was a real wasted opportunity, like you didn’t have the guts to take her as far as you could’ve.  I mean, the high-class aristocratic lady who’s got it bad for the rough tough soldier of fortune?  And they’re both all tormented about it because it’s forbidden?  And you teased it again and again and again that they’d throw caution to the wind and jump into each other’s arms, but nah, in the end they always smushed it down and went on with their duty.  Bo-ring.”

“Well, I was trying to show how beautiful it was that in the end their greatest loyalty was always to Azzurra,” Holly protested.  “And they were united in  _ that _ despite how different they were.”

“Okay,” said Kay, “now look me in the eye and tell me you’d do it the same way if you were starting that story today.”

“I was writing about what I believed  _ then,” _ Holly said, pouting.  “I wasn’t some kind of  _ rebel.” _

“You were so uptight you couldn’t even write people breaking the rules for love in a fantasy land that didn’t ever have to have the same rules as real life,” Kay pointed out.  “I’m not blaming ya!  I just think you should be aware.”  She paused and tilted her head.  “Do you think I’m a rebel?”

“No!” Holly said hastily.  “You’d never be so ungrateful and vicious.”

“Yeah, but I question everything.  Isn’t that how it starts?  I bet bad ol’ Rose Quartz asked a lot of questions.”

“You might ask questions, but you wouldn’t use that as an excuse to do terrible things the way  _ she _ did,” Holly said.

“Holly,” Kay said gently.  “You weren’t there.  I was and trust me, Rose and her Crystal Gems did not have a monopoly on doing terrible things.”

“I know,” Holly admitted.  “Sharky’s told me about some of that.  But I don’t want you to feel badly about it.  You were doing your duty and fulfilling your purpose!”

“Yeah…” said Kay, trailing off as if unconvinced.  “Hey listen!  I want you to model for  _ me. _  I’m always drawing you from memory and imagination, right?  I wanna do some drawings from life.  Really capture the details.”

“Your drawings are plenty detailed as it is.  But all right.  What should I do?”

“Sit right there,” said Kay, hopping off the bed and going back to pick up her bundle.  It proved to contain her art board, a large screen she and Skinny had kludged up together, together with a bundle of different peculiar styluses.  Kay settled herself on the bed again, cross-legged with the board on her lap, and looked Holly over with a professional eye.  “Hmm… your legs are good kneeling just like that.  Shoulders back a little.  That’s right, tits out.  Don’t go all rigid ‘cuz you’re trying to keep still, I can still draw you if you’re moving a little bit.  You’ve gotta blink, right?  And if you get stiff or tired tell me and I’ll give you a break to stretch and flop around.”

“That’s a lot to remember,” Holly muttered.

“Just like Blue Diamond when she gets her portrait done.  Except she’s a little more dressed in those.”  Kay paused, tapping her stylus against her lower lip.  “I just tried to imagine her wearing that little number of yours.  Didn’t work at all.  I can’t even imagine what shape she is, for reals.”

“You shouldn’t be trying to,” Holly said, mildly scandalised in spite of everything.  “That’s your  _ Diamond.” _

“I know.  No disrespect.  But I mean, she must HAVE a body, she’s not just a gas inside that robey cloaky thing.”  Kay was sketching in large, bold strokes of her arm that seemed inconsistent with what she’d said about the details, but for all Holly knew you started with the big lines and worked down to the little fiddly ones.  It wasn’t as if she was an artistic Gem who understood these things, but then again, nor was Kay.

“Blue Diamond’s body is none of our business,” Holly said primly.

“Yeah, I bet you’ve never thought about it,” Kay said dryly.  

“I know better!”  Holly tried desperately to change the subject to something less disturbing.  “How do you know how to do that?  I mean your drawing.”

Kay shrugged one shoulder.  “Lots of trial and error, lots and _lots_ of practice,” she said.

“Obviously you  _ can _ do it,” Holly said, “but how did you even  _ learn? _  You were never made to be an artist and you certainly weren’t trained for it.”

“Well,” said Kay, “I think there were s’posed to be artists here.  At least, artists worked on the Zoo when it was built; there are decorations on the walls and things like that.  I think maybe Pink Diamond was planning to have some art Gems here permanently, you know, for the aesthetic.  Making it beautiful and keeping it fresh for her guests.  Because there are some books for artists in the library, not a lot, but some guides.  I found them when I was bored and I just thought… I don’t know, it’d be something to do and it wouldn’t matter if I messed it up.”

“So you just started to draw?” Holly asked.  “Just like that?”

“Yep!  It felt like forever before I got any good.  I mean, anywhere  _ near _ any good.  But Quartzes are stubborn!  At least I was made for that.  Why’d you start to write?”

“I was bored too.  And lonely.  Very lonely.”

“Whereas I always had a ton of friends to pose for me.  Including doing weird shit,” Kay said, her eyes twinkling.  She turned the board around to show Holly.  “How’s that for a warm-up sketch? I think you look really cute.”

“I’m no judge.  It looks good to me.”

“Okay, new pose!  Lie on your tummy, feet up, cross your ankles — yeah, and your chin in your hands.  Real coquettish.”  Kay gave a happy little wriggle.  “Can I just say I love how your butt looks through all that silky filmy stuff?  I’m a fan of how your butt looks in general.”

“You can say that,” said Holly, feeling mollified by the praise.  It was a lot more agreeable than being reminded of her loneliness or of the fact that she didn’t think she’d become anything like as proficient a writer as Kay was an artist — and  _ that _ was embarrassing because as a diplomatic gem she was supposed to be more perceptive and have greater taste and refinement.  It was enough to make her feel off colour herself.

The poses Kay requested got increasingly risqué and involved more lowering of necklines and lifting of hems; Holly was pleasantly flustered, getting gently wet and mildly muddled by the contrast between Kay staring at her so avidly and yet seeming more interested in drawing her than coming over to touch her.  Kay’s face was flushed and her eyes were bright; she had taken to sitting with one foot tucked under her so she could gently grind on it and she was nibbling at her lower lip.

“Okay, that’s so good, you look gorgeous.  Let’s get a little sleazy now, sit back and open your legs.”

“Oh, a  _ little _ sleazy?” Holly asked, amused.  “I can do that.”  She made herself comfortable against her pillows.

“I know, sweetie, spreading your legs is your go-to move.”

“That’s not true, just as often I call attention to my breasts.”

“I love that little pleased-with-yourself-for-being-so-slutty smile you get.”  Kay flashed her a little grin over the top of her board.  “Can you do a little  _ styling _ for me?  Part your hair and spread your lips.  I wanna see the shape of them.”

“Wouldn’t you like to feel them too?” Holly asked, obeying with a little sigh.  

“Oh, we both know I’m gonna, but first I’ll draw their portrait.  Portrait of a beautiful, wet pussy.  Open like a big lush flower.  Holly Blue Agate, were you playing with yourself before I got here?  Your clit looks swollen.”

“No, this is just how I feel.”

“You can play with it so long as you don’t cover things with your hand.”

“So just little fingertip rubs?”  Holly pouted.  “That’s not much fun.”

“Yeah, restrain yourself.”

Holly puffed her cheeks and gave a little huff through pursed lips before licking her forefinger and rubbing herself lightly so that it tickled sweetly.  Kay smiled over the board again with that twinkle in her eyes.  “So I heard a rumour.”

“About whom?”

“About youm.”

“It’s always me.  What is it this time?”

“That you’re pregnant.”

“Pscht!  Oh, I know who started  _ that.   _ She’s such a silly.”  So Jay was already joking about it, or perhaps in a fanciful way boasting?  She licked her fingers again and rubbed a little harder

“Really?  ‘Cuz I’ve heard five different Gems saying they put a baby in you.  It’s catching on.”

“Well, they can’t all be right.”

“You saying one of ‘em could be right?” Kay asked, grinning.  “Should I get you a melon?  Gotta get you eating right if you’ve got one on the way.”

“Oh, now  _ you’re _ being silly.”

“About the baby or the eating?”

“Both, really.”

“Nah, I have a bet with myself I can get you into eating.  I’ve just gotta tempt you the right way.  I mean, you’re so freaking _ oral. _  You and Sharky are the two people I know who get the  _ most _ turned on doing stuff with your mouths.”

“But eating isn’t sexual,” Holly pointed out.  

“Well, no, it’s sensual.  Which links right up.  The textures and flavours… you’ll see.  One of these days.”  Kay dropped her head forward with a little hiss of breath.  “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Okay, if I had an easel I could be frigging myself while I draw you, but I didn’t bring it and I gotta hold the board steady with my free hand and I’m going nuts here.”  She gave a weak giggle.  “It’s a really silly problem.”

“Then  _ stop _ drawing and come here and let me take care of you!” Holly exclaimed.  “Honestly!”

“Is that an order from my Agate?” she asked, setting her things aside.

“Yes!  Stop fooling around and get over here and — and sit on my face or something.  That’s right, pants off, chop chop.”

“So  _ bossy,” _ Kay said, laughing as she straddled Holly’s shoulders.  She combed her fingers into Holly’s fringe, holding her head steady as she lowered her hips.  “Like this?”

“Yes,” Holly breathed.  She pushed against Kay’s hand, lifting her head to kiss her curly mound.  “Oh, I love how you smell.”  She reached with her tongue and brushed soft, plump lips.

“I know you do,” Kay said, settling herself down, her cheeks blooming violet with pleasure as Holly lapped at her.  “‘Cuz my pussy’s delicious, right?  Yummy for Holly?”

“Mmh.”  Holly glided the tip of her her tongue along the edges of silky folds, reaching up to hold Kay’s broad thighs with both hands.  Kay kept changing things here, so that Holly had to go exploring each time; at the moment there seemed to be an extra clitoris nestled in the opening of her vagina and these folds were prettily ruffled.

“And how good does that feel?  All pinned down and penned in, pussy in your face?  You’d only be happier if half a dozen big strong  Gems were taking turns to fuck you at the same time.”

“Mmhm.”

“So glad you agree,” Kay said, her breathing roughening as Holly sucked her lips.  She slid her hands to her own breasts, squeezing them and rolling her nipples between her thumbs and forefingers.  “Holly Blue is so greedy and needy.  It’s — ah! — it’s no wonder you’re pregnant.  If anyone was gonna it’d have to be you.  That’s good, that’s so good, lick my clit now, keep your tongue soft… hnn!”  Holly could feel her tensing and trembling, the heat on her tongue growing as the sweet coppery taste filled her mouth and the smell filled her head.  Kay’s face was so lovely, shining with delight, her body moving so easily as she gently rocked her hips.

“This is getting too one-way for me,” Kay panted.  “Hold still.”  She turned herself right round, her plump bottom filling Holly’s view, and bent over her body, nuzzling in between her thighs as she lowered her pussy to meet Holly’s mouth again.  Holly caught her breath and whimpered with pleasure, pushing up her hips, hugging Kay tight as their lips and tongues worked together, soft smacking sounds rising together with heavy breathing and moans and grunts of joy, Kay’s tongue fluttering wickedly at the tense bud of her clitoris while her fingers pumped inside her.  

Kay was moaning louder, her hips twitching and trembling, pumping against Holly’s sucking lips, smothering her in slippery juicy heat.  She pressed down hard as she came, her body tensing and quivering before going limp, heavy on Holly’s body and panting.  Holly whimpered faintly, her cunt still tingling around Kay’s fingers, but told herself to be patient, be patient, let Kay enjoy her moment, perfectly relaxed and filled with contentment.  Just slowly stroke her buttocks and the backs of her thighs, soothe her down.  She felt a deep, warm glow of affection for Kay, for the fierceness of her desire and the total ease with which she accepted its satisfaction, for her smooth sweat-damp skin and tangled wet hair and deep, steady breathing now that she had wound down from the heights.  

“Your turn,” said Kay, lifting her cheek from Holly’s thigh. “Should I just keep going how I was?”

“Yes, but will you pump your fingers faster?  Harder?”

“You got it.  Pull your leg back a bit, lemme move my arm.  That’s great!  Let’s see how fast I can get you off now.”

“Oh, my dear!”  Holly rocked her head back, gasping joyfully.  She dug her heels into the mattress, lifting her bottom, straining up to Kay’s rapidly thrusting fingers and flickering tongue, driving her up to a burst of ecstasy and slamming her back down.

“You’re such a screamer,” Kay said fondly, stroking Holly’s thigh as she lay there panting weakly.  

“Can’t help it,” Holly sighed.  “If I were  _ meant _ to be quiet, well, I assume I wouldn’t have such overly intense orgasms.  That’s only reasonable, right?”

“Makes as much sense as anything about you,” Kay said, rolling off and turning over to hug her.  She pressed a slick kiss against Holly’s cheek.  “Well, I’d finish off my drawing except one, now I’m all fucked out and happy and I don’t wanna do anything, and two, my model doesn’t look quite the same.”

“I’m a little bit dishevelled,” said Holly, and got the giggles.  Kay joined her, rolling them both from side to side with her arms around Holly’s waist.  They rocked to a standstill after a while, out of breath again.  

“This might just be the best part,” Kay said, nuzzling Holly’s shoulder.  “That you don’t just want to fuck, you want to have fun with us too.”

“Am I really fun?” Holly asked hopefully.  She’d never really aspired to be fun; it was typical of the changes in her priorities that it seemed quite important now.

“Of course you’re  _ fun. _  Hey…”

“Hmm?”

“Who’d you think it was?  Saying she got you pregnant?  You thought it was someone in particular.”  She patted Holly’s tummy where it was softest.

“Oh, we’re back to that?  I assumed it was Jay because she suggested it to me in the first place.  Chippy would have been my second guess.”

“You’re two for two.”

“Who else says it?”

“Oh, Sharky obviously.  Once she heard Jay and Chip talking about it, it was all me-too-but-better-than-you.  She’s such a competitive doofus.  Carnie and Skinny say they doubled up on ya so they’re not sure whose it is but that’s okay, they’ll love it equally either way.”

“They’re all  _ extremely _ silly,” said Holly, stretching contentedly.  “And I’m silly because I feel quite touched that they like the idea.  Do you think you’ll go around telling people you’ve impregnated me too?”

“Hmmm… maybe if I’m feeling mischievous.  I was rooting for Chip, personally.  She tries to talk about it and bluff really plausibly like Jay does but she just gets all blushy and giggly and can’t.  She’s head over heels for you, ya know.”

“I adore her but I really didn’t expect it.  I thought I would have to work hard just to overcome her distrust, like with you.”

“What do you mean?”  Kay propped her head up on her hand.

“Well, you didn’t use to like me at all.”

“What’re you talking about?  I always thought we could be friends if you’d just treat us right.  I told you that even before you came round.  I thought maybe that  _ helped.” _  Kay gave a self-conscious snort.  “Guess I gave myself too much credit.”

“Oh,” said Holly, dismayed.  “Somehow I’d got the idea that you were one of the ones with a very low opinion of me.”

“No.  I was mad at you a lot but that was when you were being an asshole.  You stopped being an asshole and I got over it. I didn't really  _ hate _ you.”

“I wouldn't blame you if you had.”

“You wouldn't want me to be the kind of person who’d fuck you anyway if I hated you, would you?  That’d be really fucked up.”

“Well, some people must have,” Holly said, feeling she was floundering.  “My point is I wouldn't blame —”

Kay sat up.  “You think we're like that?  Fake, and two-faced?”  She looked not only angry but hurt.  “Listen, if I hated you I hope I’d have more self-respect than to — fuck, Holly, what’d you think it all was, some kind of  _ revenge?   _ That's so disgusting!  Sex is supposed to be something you do with your  _ friends  _ and people you  _ love!” _  She glared at Holly, who had drawn herself into a kind of huddled crouch on the bed, clutching her hands to her chest.  “And you wouldn't  _ blame _ us?  Don't you think you deserve any better than that?”  Her voice had risen to a shout but it dropped away on the last few words.  “Oh shit,” she said, subdued.  “You didn't think that.”

“I’m sorry,” said Holly, rather desperately.  She didn't really think it would help but she had to  _ try _ to appease.  

“Holly,” Kay said slowly, “has someone done something like that to you?  Like fucked you and told you they hated you the whole time?  Or used sex to hurt you some way?”

“No.  No, nothing like that.”

“Why was it what you expected, though?” Kay asked, frowning.  “Was it because you think we're that bad or because you thought that kind of bad was normal?”

“It's— it's not…” Holly faltered.  She didn't feel Kay was so furious with her any more, but there was still a simmering anger there and the comfort she urgently wanted wouldn't come from her.  She gathered a pillow into her lap and wrapped her arms around it.  “It's just… you're colonial and some things are different at Home.  Especially at court.  Sex is more a matter of  _ service _ and pleasing your superiors.  If they enjoy you, you prove your worth.”

“Well, they don't put  _ that _ in the courtly romance novels,” Kay said. 

“Not in those blunt terms, no, but it is — it is romantic to be chosen like that.  I — I was chosen by a Sapphire, you know!  It was such an honour.  I was going to be her protégée, you see, she'd help me to gain refinement and become  _ more _ pleasing and useful.”

“How’d that work out for ya?”

“Not so well,” Holly admitted.  “Star Sapphire was  _ so  _ beautiful and elegant and she had that effortless air of nobility and command, such a huge, masterful personality in such a diminutive form… but she didn’t foresee the disaster on Earth and she fell in the purges as a result.”

“Shit,” said Kay, raising her eyebrows.  “Wasn’t there anything you could do?”

“She could see  _ that _ was going to happen and she told me to leave her.  I  _ did _ ask if I could help her, if there was some way to earn Blue Diamond’s forgiveness or get a reprieve, but she said no, and that she had always known we wouldn’t get very long together, just not exactly why it would end.  She was resigned to her own fate but she said… well, she used to call me her rarity, it was her little joke, I’d say, ‘Please, Your Clarity’ and she’d say, ‘Yes, my rarity?’ and it was… I felt special.”  Holly tried to get back to the point.  “She said, ‘My rarity, I can see that you have a long life ahead of you.  It was my pleasure to polish you and in time you’ll find the setting in which you shine.’  Then she kissed me goodbye and dismissed me and I didn’t see her again.”

“Did you love her?” Kay asked softly.

“I admired her and I was grateful to her,” Holly said, shaking her head.  “I didn’t expect to love her or her to love me — that would be beneath her.  I know it might not make sense if you haven’t been at court but the hope was that in time I would move on from her and be of use to Blue Diamond directly.  Star Sapphire would be proud to see me rise like that, and she’d just get a new protégée.  I assumed that was what she meant about the setting in which I’d shine.  When Blue Diamond gave me this job I was — well, I was thrilled that I would be able to do something that meant so much to her personally, that she trusted me with something precious to her…”

“But you were also kinda let down that it wasn’t something you could do and stay close by her?”

“Yes, exactly.  I’d hoped to be more of a… a confidante.  Well.  I don’t exactly  _ shine _ in this setting but I’m happy here now.  If Star Sapphire had foreseen all  _ this _ I think she’d have been far too shocked to make such a calm prediction!”  Holly tried to laugh.  “I’m not explaining any of it very well.  But I pleased her and she wanted to use me and I enjoyed being used in that way.  In some ways I still do.  Feeling that I’m just a… a vessel for pleasure…”  She trailed off, picking at the cover of the pillow.  “You know, I haven’t thought about her at all in such a long time.  That feels really ungrateful.”

“Okay, can I just say I’m glad to be a dumb grunt from the colonies if that’s what the high life on Homeworld is like?  And you were thinking you’d — you’d let us use you and that way you’d please us?  That’s so fucking sad, Holly.”

“But everyone  _ enjoys _ using me.  I’m the fucktoy, I’m the morale officer, I’m common property and I’m  _ good _ at it and it  _ satisfies _ me,” Holly said plaintively.

“I don’t have any problem with you being into that, you’re  _ great _ at it.  Just please don’t ever say that shit about us hating you again.  Ever.  To me either.  It’s really fucked up and if you don’t get why I don’t totally blame you but you’ve gotta understand that to us it’s fucked up and we wouldn’t  _ ever _ do that.”  Kay scruffled her hands through her hair.  “Ugh!  I don’t know how to explain it to you either.”

“I’m sorry,” Holly tried again.  “I would never have said that if I’d known how you’d feel about it.”

“It’s the fact you  _ didn’t _ know that freaked me out,” Kay said.  To Holly’s surprise, she abruptly turned towards her and hugged her tight.  “Okay,” she said, resting her chin on her shoulder.  “Okay, I’m calming down.  But you don’t feel like we’re  _ just _ using you, do you?”

“Of  _ course _ not!” Holly exclaimed.  “I couldn’t possibly.  I… I don’t always understand right away what you want from me, but I know you want much more than… well, you want me to care for you, don’t you?  And I do, and I feel that you care about me.”

“Damn right,” Kay growled.  She rubbed her cheek on Holly’s shoulder.  “Have to love you up and knock some sense into you,” she added, tapping her knuckles lightly on the back of Holly’s head above her gemstone.  

“I’ll try,” Holly sighed, pulling the pillow out from between them and wrapping Kay up in her arms.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter things get a trifle orgiastic again - I really love doing the chapters where Holly gets closer to individuals and there'll be more of that as I go along, but there still need to be free-for-alls.

Over the next few days Holly felt things were going well; she managed to conduct herself without offending or upsetting anyone, she pulled off a pretty shrewd bit of matchmaking in her latest round of Choosening plans which ought to improve two bloodlines’ digestive systems and complexions, and Kay completed a coloured portrait based on her boudoir sketches that was actually sort of tasteful, allowing for the prominent visibility of her nipples through the diaphonous slip.  She was the centre of attention in the bathroom and never had any shortage of overnight guests.

She was still feeling a touch of guilty concern about the Betas and their lost Mountain.  They seemed to have been cheered by the knowledge she had survived the war and the evacuation too, and the memory of her being rekindled meant they chatted about her a lot, which made Holly feel guiltier.  It wasn’t as if she could share in the conversation the way the Prime Gems did, chipping in with stories and rumours they’d heard about her and asking how much was true; all  _ she  _ knew about 9-2QM was sad and distressing, but it was the only information she had.  

She woke one morning nestled between Sharky and Chip with the realisation that it  _ wasn’t _ the only information she had, and annoyed with herself for not realising it sooner.  She hadn’t  _ looked _ at the garrison’s personnel files in millennia but she did recall that when she had been new here she had been annoyed to find that what she had was just a big dump of files for every Gem hatched in Prime  _ and _ Beta, and she had to sort through them to find those that were current and didn’t just end in a date with “deserted,” “shattered” or “missing, presumed broken” tersely noted next to it.  It was still possible to request an update from central records; if she refreshed that database any information entered since then should appear on 9-2QM’s file.  

She sent the request and was on pins and needles the rest of the day waiting for it to come through.  What if the request attracted some sort of unwelcome attention?  She couldn’t think of any reason why it should be noticed, there must be millions of similar automated requests from all quarters of the empire daily, her clearance for that level of information was perfectly in order, and even if some officious busybody  _ did _ ask why she wanted a new copy of files she had held for thousands of years she could surely come up with a plausible answer (she’d accidentally deleted some? whoops, silly her?), and it certainly wouldn’t reveal anything about the goings-on under her increasingly nominal command… but she worried.  It seemed to be her lot in life.

“What’s on your mind, cutie?” Exes asked, slapping her butt amiably as she stood frowning out of a window as if she could see the subspace data signals coming in.

“Oh!  Nothing much,” Holly said, colouring.  She’d decided not to say anything until she knew whether there was anything to say.  “Just stargazing.”

“They  _ are _ kinda pretty,” said Exes, leaning her elbows on the window ledge.  “When we saw ‘em from Earth, they used to twinkle, and that looked even prettier.”

“Twinkle?”

“Yeah, they’d kind of sparkle and shimmer.  I think it was ‘cuz of the atmosphere there, it had a lot of water vapour and dust and junk in it that distorted the light a little.  When you were on the side of the planet facing the sun, the atmosphere scattered the light so you couldn’t see the stars at all, just a blue sky — sometimes it was like your colour.  Then when you got rotated away from the sun, the starlight wasn’t competing with that strong bright light and you could see space.  I really miss that Earth sky.  It was always doing something different.”

“Wasn’t it disconcerting?” Holly asked.  “I would find it very unsettling to have colours and lights changing up above me all the time.”  The soft, steady, very slightly pink-tinted light of the station had been the only light she’d known for so long that she had to concentrate to remember the dazzling lights of Homeworld.  

“It could be scary sometimes,” Exes said, nodding.  “Like when there was a big storm.  The water vapour would get all clustered together in these big dark clouds, and screen out nearly all the sunlight, and then the water’d condense out of the air and pour down in sheets and sheets of big wet drops, and sometimes there’d be little balls of ice, those’d really  _ ping  _ ya, and bolts of electricity crackling around amongst the clouds and huge booming sounds out of nowhere that was just the  _ air _ crashing together.”

“Good grief!” Holly exclaimed.  “No  _ wonder _ the habitats here don’t replicate that.”

“We had  _ amazing _ storms over Prime,” Exes said in a tone of fond reminiscence.  “Like when we all first hatched and we were still there training?  We’d huddle back in our holes in the canyon wall and peer out and gosh, the  _ roar _ of the rain coming down!  You could hardly hear the Gem in the next hole if she yelled out to you.  The water would stream into the bottom of the canyon and come whooshing down like a Lapis Lazuli was going batshit.  If you fell in it’d carry you off till you hit a wall or grabbed onto a rock.”

“It sounds  _ terrifying. _  It must have been awful for you.”

“It was awesome!  Both senses of the word.  I wish I could show you!”  Exes beamed at her, her eyes as bright as the stars.

“I would so much rather look at you,” Holly said, stroking her cheek.  “I don’t believe Earth has anything more beautiful to offer than all of you.”

“Aw,” said Exes, and giggled with a little snort.  “You smooth talker, Holly Boo.  C’mere!”  She threw her arms round Holly’s waist and pulled her in for a kiss.  It was a wonderfully welcome distraction from talk of thunderstorms or thoughts of trouble, and Holly responded eagerly, rising up on her toes and pressing her breasts against Exes’ full bosom.  She felt large hands slide down to grab and squeeze her bottom, pulling her hips hard against Exes’, and gave them a swivel to encourage her.  “Holly’s frisky,” Exes murmured against her lips.  “I think she wants me to fuck her.”

“Yes please,” Holly whispered.  “Oh, yes  _ please.” _

“Here we go,” said Exes with a low chuckle.  She bent her knees and slid her hands to the backs of Holly’s thighs and hoisted her with a grunt, up against the curved pink wall beside the window.  Holly gave a little squeal; it always thrilled her to feel how easily they could lift her up and bounce her around, and she was no featherweight.  She locked her legs around Exes’ waist and combed her fingers into her mane and kissed her hungrily, rolling her tongue against hers.  Exes grasped her buttocks in warm, calloused hands and ground against Holly’s mound, her cock rising in a firm bulge.  She fluttered the tip of her tongue, teasing just inside Holly’s lips, and Holly, panting softly, rolled her hips harder.  

“Please?” Holly repeated.   _ “Please,  _ Exy.  You know how I get.  I really need it.”

“Damn right I do.  Shit, shoulda got your pants down before I picked you up.”  Exes was chuckling again, trying to sort of juggle Holly’s weight between her hands and one knee pushed up under her bottom  _ and _ tug her pants down over her hips without letting her slide to the floor.  They struggled and grunted and giggled breathlessly and between them managed to get Holly’s pants down to the tops of her boots, her knees pushed up to her chest and her ankles on Exes’ shoulders.  It was hardly a comfortable position but she could feel the tip of Exes’ dick nudging and prodding at her pussy lips until it slipped in, Exes’ laughter at her own clumsiness fading into a rumbling purr of pleasure.

_ “Oh, _ that’s it,” Holly breathed.  “Oh, I love feeling you reach so deep inside me!  So big and hard, my sexy Exy.”  That sounded silly as soon as she’d said it but Exes leaned in and kissed her as if she was delighted with it.  Their lips parted with a smack and then Exes was panting against her cheek as she thrust into her wet depths, quick and eager.  She made surprisingly soft, sweet little sounds, husky cries of “Ah!  Ah!” while she clutched at Holly’s buttocks.  Holly let her head rock back against the wall and moaned aloud.

“So good,  _ so _ good, fuck me harder!  Yes, you glorious Gem, yes, you beauty!  Oh, fill me up!”

“You gonna get pregnant if I do?” Exes chuckled.

“M-maybe.  Try it,” Holly panted.  

“Challenge accepted.”  Exes pumped her hips faster, her thick cock churning in Holly’s cunt, working her to a frenzy of pleasure, gasping out broken words of praise and joy until she cried out at the great delicious climax that pulsed inside her.  She was pinned to the wall by Exes’ weight as she leaned on her, breathing heavily and misting the shiny wall with the heat of their bodies.  Rather than try her juggling act again, Exes just sank slowly to her knees until she could deposit Holly’s bottom safely on the floor between them.

“Ohhhhhh,” she sighed, “that was  _ so _ fuckin’ nice.”  She nuzzled against Holly’s nose.  “Hmmm… dunno how we’d tell if you’re preggo right away.  Humans, you can tell inside of a month or two.  You know what’s really funny?”

“You wanting to tell me about human pregnancy signs when we just had frantic rutting sex up against a wall?” Holly asked, settling her legs more comfortably on either side of Exes’ hips.  “Go on.”

“Their vulvas change colour.  The pink bits go darker ‘cuz there’s a lot more blood circulating in the area getting everything set up.  Purple.  Sometimes even blue!”

“Blue!” Holly exclaimed.

“I know, the  _ nerve,  _ right?  Maybe yours’ll turn pink.”

“You are both very clever to know all these strange things and very silly to apply them to me,” Holly said indulgently, stroking back Exes’ hair.  

“And you’d get one of those stripes down the middle of your tummy.”

“Like a Jasper stripe?”

“Nah, it’s just a thin dark line down the middle,” Exes said, tracing her forefinger down over the curve of Holly’s lower belly to the edge of her pubic hair.  

“I don’t hear about the colour-changing privates and stripes from Jay and Chip.  They’re more focused on the big milky breasts and round tummy.”

“Yeah, that’s the sexy stuff.  The stripes and stuff are just the little quirky things.  You think it’s kinda weird, don’t you?”

“I think because you pay attention to these quirky little things, our humans are very healthy,” Holly said firmly.

“You know what I like about you, Holly-dolly?  You’re always looking for the good in us these days.  Even when you’re sitting on the floor in a come puddle.”

“Oh dang!”  A voice echoed down the corridor.  “We caught a Holly hog!  Holly hogging in progress.”  Bee and Kitty were rounding the corner nearby, all salacious grins and swagger.  

“It’s not hogging if no one is around to share with.  I’m just doing my Rule One duty,” Exes pointed out, nodding towards a poster panel on the wall.

“And doing it well,” Holly said, kissing her on the cheek, “but there’s room for more.”  Much as she’d enjoyed the intimacy she’d just felt with Exes, she had been hoping this would happen; it was always so delightful to feel in demand, especially once word of a spontaneous bang spread and more and more Gems arrived, jostling and giggling and playing with themselves and giving colour commentary as they waited for their chance to take her on the floor.

“Oh yeah, you heard the lady,” said Kitty gleefully.  “Make way!”  She and Bee crowded in on their knees, nudging and elbowing Exes, who laughingly struggled a little for the sake of honour before scooting back and letting them pull Holly away from the wall.  

“Aw, you got your freshly-fucked glow on,” said Bee, pulling Holly’s top up over her breasts.  She pressed them together with both hands and smacked a kiss between them.

“Can we do you together?” Kitty asked, tugging down her pants to show off a fine fat rising erection.

“Yes, of course — what did you have in mind?”

“I call her mouth!” Bee exclaimed.

_ “Someone _ knows what she wants,” Kitty laughed.

“Holly’s mouth is  _ great,”  _ Bee said.  “I could fuck that pretty kisser all day.  It may be controversial, but I’d rate it best out of the three major orifices.”

“You’re crazy, her asshole is clearly the best.  It’s the tightest.  Here you go, baby,” she added as an aside to Holly, guiding her to kneel in front of her and bend over.

“Does it got a tongue?  Does it go mmm-mmm yum-yum while it sucks you?  I don’t think so,” Bee said, stroking Holly’s cheek and rubbing her thumb over her lower lip.  Holly pulled it into her mouth and sucked it, rolling her tongue against the pad, amused by their debate.

“But ya can’t  _ talk _ to her with your dick in her mouth.  Or ya can but you’re not gonna get anything back  _ except _ mmm-mmm yum yum.”  Holly could feel Kitty kneading her buttocks, parting them with  _ her _ thumbs to expose Holly’s puffy, sensitive pucker and lightly stretch it.

“Oh, so you like to fuck her in the ass for the  _ conversation?” _

“I’ll just hafta talk to  _ you _ instead,” Kitty said, and blew a little raspberry.  She ran her finger up the cleft of Holly’s ass, smearing the thick trickle of Exes’ semen that had run into it, and pushed it slowly, firmly into her anus, making Holly quiver and twitch.

“Here Holly, lemme just get — that’s right.”  With Holly on her hands and knees, Bee scooted in on her bottom, sliding her legs under Holly’s body so she could nestle her cock between her breasts.  “Such soft, heavy titties.  Squoosh down on me and suck me, okay?”

“Yes, sweetie, I know how you like it.”  Holly lowered herself on her elbows, pressing her breasts together between her upper arms, sliding them up and down to Bee’s little grunts of pleasure.  She meant to lick the tip of Bee’s cock but caught her breath and froze a moment, whimpering as she felt Kitty entering her ass, sliding in deep.

“Holy shit, such a cute face,” Bee breathed.  “You’re missin’ it back there.”

“I’ll somehow cope,” Kitty grunted, still firmly kneading as she ground her way in.  “Izzat good, Holly?  Good for your sweet little asshole?”

“Mmhmm, mmhmm,” Holly moaned.  She gave up on the breast massage and slid down to lick all over Bee’s shaft, her mouth watering.  

“Ohhh, look at her loving on my dick.  That’s right, Holly, you’re doing so good.  Hey, you know you need to rub right under her butt at the tops of her thighs too, right?  She’s all sensitive there.”

“Please, this is not my first time giving Holly’s ass the works.  Hear how she’s moaning?  Oh hey Ellie, we’re fucking Holly.  Pass it on.”  

Holly turned her eyes trying to see Ellie, and if anyone else was arriving, but Bee made a screen with her hand at the side of her face and said, “Eyes on me, Holly-dolly.  Show me those crystal blues.  Let me put it in your mouth, there it is, open wide.”  She breathed in sharply as Holly sealed her lips and sucked, gazing up at her.  “Oh yes.  Can you stick your fingers in my pussy under there?”

“Mmh.”  Holly drew her deeper and sank two fingers into wet heat.  Bee made a lovely noise, a soft groan, and flexed her hips against Holly’s hand.  All the while Kitty was steadily pumping, hard in her depths, stretching and rubbing her tender ring.  Her hands were all over Holly’s bottom and thighs, squeezing and circling, and Bee’s hands were stroking her cheeks, her neck, her hair.

“Do you ever still think holy shit, I’m really fucking our Agate?” Kitty panted.  “And she wants it, and she loves it, and I’m gonna — oh, I’m gonna — ooh Holly!”  She was pumping faster now, her hips slapping briskly against Holly’s bottom.

“Can you take it deeper?” Bee asked.  “Like swallow it?”

“Mmkh.”  Holly had to pull off and pant a moment, a thin strand of saliva still connecting her lower lip to Bee’s vermilion cock.  “Let me get up a bit and…”  If she was bent over Bee’s lap there was a kind of fold in her throat that got in the way; if she got up on her hands and tipped back her head, her jaw and throat were in line, and as Bee rose on her knees and fed her cock back into Holly’s mouth it was much easier to accept it.  She breathed deep and slid out her tongue and pushed forward, feeling the thick blunt head fill her throat, until her nose was brushing Bee’s hairy belly, pressing into it as Kitty’s thrusts rocked her back and forth.   _ My mouth is a pussy, my ass is a pussy, I’m a pussy, I live to be fucked. _  The thought was loaded with joyful shame, dark sweet pleasure rolling low in her belly as she rocked between the two of them, her breasts swinging and bouncing.

“Oh shit, look at her go!”

_ I have an audience. _  She’d closed her eyes to concentrate on what she could feel, taste and smell as she sucked and swallowed, and if she opened them now she wouldn’t see much more than a cute orange tummy and a lot of thick fluffy hair, but she could hear murmurs, many feet shuffling on the floor.

“I love it when she gets so turned on and spaced out she drools.”

“Look, her cunt’s dripping.”

“It’s so mean to fuck her ass and not her pussy!  Pussy needs love.”

“Nah, she’ll just appreciate it more when she finally gets it.”

“She’ll appreciate it, I’m gonna give it to her.”

“Am I a total minority ‘cuz I think Holly with a dick is the hottest?”

“Mmm… it’s  _ nice _ but is it that much hotter?”

“Imagine her big blue dick bobbing around under her belly while she’s getting fucked on all fours like that.”

“That  _ is  _ a sweet visual.”

Holly could feel her hair was escaping from its buns in loops and ringlets as Bee feverishly stroked her head.  She looked up at her, blinking to clear her eyes, and found Bee’s face ecstatic, eyes hazy and mouth hanging softly open.

“Holly, I’m gonna come real soon, can I do it in your mouth?”

“Mmhmm, mmhmm.”

“You’re so good to me.  You know everyone here wishes they were me or Kitty?  She looks ready to blow too.”

“Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes,” Kitty babbled, pounding into Holly’s throbbing bottom until her voice broke in a deep throaty groan.  Holly felt the surge and squelch of come escaping from her with each unsteady, fading stroke, then a thick hot rivulet as Kitty pulled out and slumped down behind her.  A deafening ragged cheer went up all around them, whoops and whistles and cries of “Go Holly!” and “Fuck yeah, Kitty!”  

Her attention was forced back to Bee as her hands clutched both buns and her climax spurted in Holly’s throat, filling her mouth as Bee pulled back, still ejaculating.  Holly swallowed hurriedly but half of the thick liquid spilled from her mouth and rolled down her chin.  Shivering and licking her lips, she sank down to sit on her heels.  There was applause all around her and warm tactile evidence of Bee and Kitty’s delight was running down her neck to soak into her top and pooling under her bottom.  A giggle burst out of her; she was all flushed and tingly with pride.  Bee threw her arms around her and kissed her, heedless of the mess, and she felt Kitty hug her from behind.  

“Who wants next?” Bee asked the corridor in general.  There was a fresh clamour and Holly looked around to see that there were at least two dozen Quartzes crowding in around them, none of them less than half naked.

“Me!”

“Me, I wanna!”

“C’mon, you animals, it’s Holly’s choice,” said Kitty, getting up.  

“Pick me, Holly!”

“No, me — look, I made a special dick just for you, it’s got a bulge’ll hit your G-spot every time.”

“Pick me, I got here first!”

“Pretty please!” said Chip, who had got past the crowd by the ingenious means of dropping on her hands and knees and crawling between the legs.  “Pick me?”

“Come here, darling,” said Holly, waving her in as Bee made room.

“Aw, Holly’s pet,” said someone, without any real rancour.  It didn’t seem to bother Chip either; she threw her arms around Holly and kissed her eagerly.

“You look so beautiful, Mama,” she whispered.  “I loved watching you.”

“Thank you, sweet Chippy.  Will you help me get undressed?  I’m a little — tangled up.”  Her top was still tucked up over her breasts while her pants were pulled down over the tops of her boots.

“Okay!”  That was Chip, always delighted to help.  She took off Holly’s cape and considerately used it to blot her chin before helping her off with her top, pulling it carefully out in front of her face and over her head when Holly raised her arms.  As soon as it was clear of her face Chip kissed her again, softly lapping at her lips with Holly’s arms stuck over her head, wrapped up in her top.  With Sharky or for that matter Carnelian it might have been a deliberate manoeuvre to trap her arms; with Chip Holly was fairly sure she just couldn’t wait to kiss her some more.  She was right; after a few moments’ fervent smooching Chip rose on her knees to pull the top right off and dropped it aside.

“It’s all right just to rip my pants, I’ll make new ones,” Holly murmured.  She supposed it was silly, it would be so easy just to dissolve her clothes the way many of her Quartzes did, but the process of removing them was always titillating.  She stretched out her legs in front of her and Chip carefully, seriously, found the best spot to rip from and tore them from front waist to back.  “Thank you, darling, you did that so neatly and I’m much more comfortable.”  She spread her legs with a contented sigh and held out her arms to Chip.  “Come here, lovey.”

Chip laid her back with one soft kiss after another, settling into the cradle of her arms and legs and slipping her stiff, chubby cock deep into Holly’s pussy.  “You’re so soft and wet.”

“Mmm…”  Holly wrapped her legs around Chip’s waist, resting her heels on her firm little bottom, gasping softly as she began to thrust.  She never had the sensation of being used by Chip, just of being adored.  It was a little daunting sometimes.  

“Is that good?” Chip whispered by her cheek.  “Did I get the angle you like?”

“Lean forward just a little more.  Ooh, yes!”

“Want to make you feel  _ so _ good,” Chip breathed.  Her movements were slow and steady, her cock gliding smoothly between Holly’s sleek, swollen lips.  

“Oh, you do, you  _ do.”   _ This position was perfect for putting gentle pressure on her clitoris together with the hot sweet sliding stretch of her cunt around Chip’s shaft.

“I’m so proud of you,” Chip murmured, “you’re so strong, so lovely,  _ so _ lovely…”  She kissed Holly sweetly, pulling her tongue taut with suction before she released it and lifted her head a little, gazing down on her, her ruddy face flushed crimson.  “Oh, Holly!”

“Please — please — I need a little faster — can you?”

Chip nodded wordlessly, biting her lip; it was hard for her to control herself when she was so heavily aroused but she gave of her best, you could always say that for Chip.  Holly felt a little added pang of love for her.  She braced herself and quickened her stroke, and Holly arched and moaned as the pleasure intensified.

“You can do it, Chip,” cheered a spectator, “fuck that sloppy blue pussy good.”

“We warmed ‘er up for ya!”

“Your butt looks cute whamming up and down.”

Holly tightened her arms around Chip’s sweat-slick body, all her focus on the fierce sweetness building deep in her cunt, pumping back against those strong hips.  There were laughing, raucous, lustful voices all around her, and Chip’s husky whisper against her cheek, “Mama —  _ Mama!”  _

“So good,  _ so _ good, a little more, a little more!”  Holly’s breathing escalated into a run of high-pitched gasps as she crested and peaked, clinging to Chip and trembling all over.  She subsided with a great sigh of pleasure and relief.  “Come for me now, Chippy,” she murmured.  “Make me a mama.”

“Oh!” Chip sounded shocked and thrilled at once.  Holly felt her cock twitching inside her, a hot flush of wetness, and saw the sweetest expression on Chip’s face, hidden from everyone else by the soft, shaggy curtain of her hair.  She lay holding her and stroking her back, kissing her cheek and glad to have this little screen for a moment alone.

“My darling,” she murmured, “will you stay and help me? Hold me, let me lean on you?”

“While all the others fuck you?” Chip asked faintly.

“Mmhmm. Would you like that?”  The answer came in a deep, hungry kiss.   _ My little voyeur, _ she thought fondly.  

“If I can help you get pregnant, even if it’s with someone else, I’ll be so happy.”

_ And my little fantasist, but it’s such a lovely fantasy. _  “And that’s why I love you so.  Come on.  Up.  I want some more.”  She patted Chip’s bottom, and with a grunt and a sigh Chip pushed herself up and sat back, shaking back her tousled hair.

“Nice!” said Peek, clapping Chip on the back.  “You really built up your stamina.”  Chip giggled sheepishly.  

“Holly, can I?” Vee murmured, leaning in and running her hand up the inside of Holly’s thigh.  

“Let me just be comfortable,” Holly said, turning herself around to rest her head in Chip’s lap.  She raised her legs and held her knees to her shoulders, putting her flushed, creamy pussy on display.  A roar of approval went up from the onlookers.  

“Want me to hold your legs for you?” Chip asked, sliding her hands down the curves of Holly’s calves.

“Thank you, sweetie, most considerate.”  She slipped her own hands to her breasts and squeezed them firmly.

“Li’l suck-up,” said Vee, smiling as she shuffled in on her knees and grasped Holly’s plump buttocks.  “Okay, Holly, I’m trying a different shape.  I hope you like the bumps.”

“Ooh…” Holly cooed, gazing between her thighs at the curious short, thick cock Vee had come up with, pressing into her pussy as Chip’s frothy come squished out around it.  “I think I do.  Now, are you another one who wants to make me pregnant?”

“Nah, just want to fuck you silly,” said Vee.  “Make your eyes roll up, get those noises going, feel that greedy pussy squeezing down on me.”

“Oh, like this?” Holly asked innocently, tightening the walls of her cunt.  Vee had been stroking back and forth easily; she slowed down with a sputter of laughter.  “Do you like that?” Holly asked sweetly.  “I do.  Ooh, I  _ am _ appreciating those bumps now.”

“So mean,” said Vee, leaning forward, her cheeks flushing, her smile growing.  

“Not mean,” Holly protested, “lovely.  Chippy says.  Ooh…” Her breath hissed between her teeth.  It was an effort to work her inner muscles like this but it felt delicious, and then there was the reward of toying with Vee, making a game of it between them.

“Work on that stamina,” said Chip, beaming.  “You’re not gonna come already, are ya?”

“No,” puffed Vee, “‘course not.”

“Are you sure?  ‘Cuz I know Holly’s pussy feels  _ so _ good hugging your dick, and it’s real tempting, isn’t it?  You just wanna let go and fuck till you blow, right?”

“Holly!” cried Vee.  “Tell Chip she’s being naughty.”

“Chippy is my pet and I’ll never scold her,” Holly said, flexing her hips against Vee’s smooth stroke.  “So — ah!  Oh, my darling!   _ Oh,  _ Vee!”

“Yeah?” Vee thrust harder, bending low over Holly’s body.

“Oh, it just started to feel  _ really _ good!  You — you know how sometimes — sometimes you’re already enjoying it but then something  _ tips  _ and  _ oh?”   _ She was pinned by Vee’s weight and Chip held her legs tight; she was helpless under waves of pleasure, her body bouncing with each thrust.

“Gonna give you that  _ oh,” _ Vee panted.  “You’re gonna come so hard you see stars.”

“Oh, please!” Holly cried.   _ “Oh!”   _ She clutched at her breasts, her cunt twitching around the thick shaft.

“Dude, I think she just came.”

“She got that one fluttery eye.”

“Can I just say I love our big slutty Agate?”

“She’s not that big for an Agate, but yeah, I love her too.”

The luscious spasms in Holly’s depths were dying down now; she lay in a blissful daze with Vee rutting into her and Chip stroking her hair.  Her pussy lips smacked softly around Vee’s cock, and she bounced and shuddered in time with her thrusts, dreamily anticipating the release of Vee’s orgasm.  She was so beautiful, poised over her, her soft hair and heavy breasts swinging, her face lit with joy.

“That’s it,” Chip said, “come for Mama.  Give her a big creamy load.”

“You’re such a perv,” Vee panted.   _ “You _ want her pregnant, right?”

“Heck yes.”

“You want it too, Holly?”

“Yes, my darling!”

“Then if —”  Vee lost her train of thought, her mouth sagging open and her eyes falling closed; her strong hips pumped in as deep as she could go and Holly felt her twitching, flooding her with a stream of thick come.  Vee slumped down on her, hot and wet and heavy on the backs of her thighs, her forehead on Holly’s.  Holly was trapped between her and Chip, whose approval was clear from her renewed erection pressed against her neck.  Vee’s breath tickled her lips, and then she was kissing her, soft and sloppy.  

“Okay,” Vee breathed.  “If you weren’t yet I bet you are now.  That’s a big… yeah, that’s a pretty massive… mmm.”

“Thank you, sweetie,” Holly whispered.

“Feel nice?”

“So nice… soft and slippery and lush.”

“I really wanna stay and cuddle you but I know Peek wants you too.  And like, everyone else.”

“Come and spend the night tomorrow.  You can cuddle me as much as you like.”

“Mmm.  Gonna cuddle the fuck out of ya.”  Vee kissed her once more and lifted herself up.  “Peek, you want in on this?”

“Let my legs down, Chippy,” Holly said.  “Thank you, love.  Help me sit up?  Oh my.”  The movement had spunk pouring out of her with a soft little splurt.  

“Woo!” Peek cried.

“It’s all bubbly,” Chip said, leaning over Holly’s shoulder avidly.  

“Yeah, I really churned ‘er up,” said Vee with pride.

“Okay,” said Peek, lying back with her cock jutting up, “get on top, Holly-dolly, go for a ride.”  She managed it with a boost from Chip, settling down gratefully with Peek buried in her tender pussy.  There was a gentle push on her back; she leaned forward and felt sweet pressure on her anus, and turned her head to find Tee penetrating her.  She arched her back, luxuriating in the push and stretch as they filled her together, and felt a touch on her face, turning her head forward again.  Ellie was back, standing astride Peek and offering her cock for Holly’s inspection.  Holly opened wide and felt it blunt and salty on her tongue and sucked it in, moaning low in her throat.  

_ I’m full, I love it, I’m full, they love me, I’m everyone’s needy little fucktoy.  _ Her head was spinning with hectic pleasure.

“That’s it, Holly, you’re doing such a good job,” Ellie murmured. “You’ve got that instinct, dontcha?  It’s yummy, isn’t it?”  Holly whined agreement, working her jaw, closing her eyes; they were watering from the intensity of her sensations, the sweet sharp pulsing between her pussy and her ass.

“Go Holly!”

“Holy shit, she’s strong.  I mean, she can  _ really _ take some fucking.”

“I would legit need a nap.”  

“Dick always puts you to sleep, ya dope.”

“Holly’s the opposite, it powers her up.”

“Sharky says she’n Jay both pounded her in the pussy.  Like together.”

“Sharky’ll say anything.”

“I think Holly could do it, she’s badass.”

“Look at those titties bounce!”

“I love her little greedy grunts.”

“Hey, can I have her ass next?”

“Help yourself, cuddlebuddy.”

Holly had lost count of her couplings and was resting luxuriously in Chip’s arms when someone said, “Oh shit.  It was time to switch shifts like… ten minutes ago?”

There was a chorus of booing and “Nooooo!”

“You mean we gotta go from banging Holly to clearing out that huge hairball that always grows back in the lagoon drain?”

“Ew, you had to remind me?”

The Quartzes began hauling themselves up off the floor, ineffectually wiping each other down, bending to drop apologetic kisses on Holly’s head.  

“We’re gonna have to sluice off real quick, I can’t face the humans with jizz in my hair.” 

“Better get a clean-up crew to mop this place out while we’re at it, before someone slips in the slick.”

“See ya, Holls.  Thanks so much.”

Holly suppressed a little yawn; she was quite spent and languid now but not entirely ready for the orgy to be all over.  “You don’t have to go, do you, Chippy?”

Chip looked irresolute; she clearly wanted to stay.  “I really need to check up on my humans,” she said.  There was a system operating now, established without any instructions from Holly while she was holed up in her room, whereby each Quartz was directly responsible for a small group of humans’ general wellbeing.  They would talk to them daily, tend to any particular needs they had and generally try to keep them contented.  Chip was very conscientious about hers; Holly had listened patiently, stroking her hair, as she told her long stories about their little lives.  

“What’re you lazy fucks doing in here?”  Sharky’s familiar growl echoed through the corridor.  “We’ve been  _ waiting _ while you’re  _ masturbating.” _

“Hey, I object,” said Exes, who was still sitting on the floor.  “Sure, there’s spunk all over the place but this was a team effort, no one flew solo.”  

Sharky rounded the corner, scowling thunderously, her mane bristling out around her head so that she looked more than usually vast.  Holly felt a pleasant twitch in her pussy at the sight; she might be tired but an aggressive Sharky would always get a rise out of her.

“Frickin’  _ reeks  _ of — oh hey, Holly,” Sharky said, her frown clearing a little.  She put her hands on her hips, looking down at them.  “Okay, the Mystery of Where the Fuck Is Everybody just got solved.  What, you couldn’t wait?  Right here on the floor?”

“I saw you fucking her on the floor the day before yesterday,” Exes pointed out.  “In the ass.  With your hair in a ponytail, which I meant to tell you at the time looked cute and sporty but you weren’t listening.”

“Thanks, noted.  But get  _ your _ ass to work, huh?  That drain’s not gonna clear itself.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Exes, pushing herself to her feet.  “Hey, Holly, thanks for a really good time.  Take good care of that baby.”  She blew Holly a kiss and strolled off.  

Chip heaved a sigh.  “I guess I better go.  I know Sharky’ll take care of you like I would.”

Sharky crouched down beside them.  “Maybe a little rougher, but she’ll be in good hands.  Sluttin’ it up early today, Holly?”

“It’s never too early,” Holly said, sitting up and looping an arm around Sharky’s shoulders to give her a kiss.

“Oof,” said Sharky, scooping one arm behind Holly’s knees and the other round her back.  With a grunt she stood up, bouncing Holly lightly to get her comfortably settled in her arms.  “Tsk tsk tsk, what am I gonna do with you?”

“Carry me home and tenderly put me to bed?” Holly suggested hopefully.  

“Like this?” Sharky asked with a surprised chuckle. “You’re gooier’n a very gooey thing.”

“Carry me home, give me a sponge-bath and tenderly put me to bed,” Holly amended.  “Hmmm?”  She rubbed her cheek on Sharky’s shoulder and fluttered her eyelashes at her.  “I’m feeling too lazy to go all the way to the bathroom and  _ then _ to bed.”

“Yeah, yeah, the lashes,” said Sharky, shaking her head.  “I’ll take it from here, Chips.”

“I’ll come see you later,” Chip promised, kissing Holly on the cheek.  “Have fun with Sharky.”

“I hope you don’t mind me smelling so strongly like everyone else,” Holly said as Sharky carried her along the hall.  

“It’s not a  _ bad _ smell,” Sharky said, shrugging.  

“You were saying something reeked, though.”

“Yeah, when I was ticked off ‘cuz I’d been waiting around for someone to come take over my dumb job.  If I was in a better mood I’d’ve been like, oh what a piquant aroma, do I detect a hint of Holly’s puss?”

“More than a hint,” Holly said contentedly, resting her head on Sharky’s shoulder.  

“I mean, I’m takin’ you to the bathroom to hose you off whether you like it or not.  I just got off work and I wanna wash up too, then take my nice clean soft fluffy Holly back to bed and get her all messed up again me-style.”  Sharky gave her a wide, sly grin. 

“You might not have me to yourself in the bathroom,” Holly pointed out.  “It might be full of other big strong Gems washing off the sweat and grime of manual labour.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”  

“There’s no point in denying it.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBC with moar Sharky.
> 
> While I was working on this chapter and a bit bogged down zawa-ro drew [this exceptionally pornographic and delightful picture which, completely by coincidence, is very much in the same spirit.](http://zawa-ro.tumblr.com/post/164658676306/yeah-im-just-gonna-sit-here-and-wait-she-looks)


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's a shortish chapter of Sharky fuckery, with vigorous spanking. It follows directly on from the previous one so if the opening line seems abrupt you might want to reread the end of that.

As luck would have it, though, the bathroom was empty by the time they arrived apart from puddles and damp towels all over the place.  Sharky showered them both pretty briskly; she wasn’t much of a one for slow sensuous bathing but she was certainly thorough.  

“Man, your crack’s really sticky,” she remarked, rubbing the side of her soapy hand up and down between Holly’s buttocks as she braced herself against the shower wall.

“Don’t call it  _ that,” _ Holly protested.

“Sticky is as sticky does.”

“No,  _ crack. _  It just doesn’t sound nice.  Like it’s  _ broken.” _

“Huh, good point,” said Sharky, rinsing her down.  “Like calling a pussy a gash or an axe wound.”

“That’s worse, if possible!”

“Well, I’ve  _ had  _ axe wounds, and they’re no fun but they’re not as bad as a gemstone crack.  What else can I call this, though?”  She skimmed her fingers down it again and paused to rub the pucker of Holly’s anus.  “Damn, Holly, there’s  _ still _ cum in here.  You can really hold it in.”  

“I… I don’t know.  Cleft.”  

“That does sound classier,” Sharky said, wiggling her fingertip in through very little resistance.  “Okay, your  _ cleft _ was really sticky.  Can I say ass-cleft?”

“If you really feel the need to be specific.  It’s the only cleft I have.”

“What about between your boobs?  Your pussy’s kind of a cleft too.”

“Ah… yes, all right.”  Holly tilted her hips, sighing, folding her arms against the wall.  “Three clefts, then.”

“And I’ve fucked all of ‘em,” Sharky said smugly, pulling her finger free and giving Holly a slap on the ass.  “Okay, you’re clean and decent, as much as you ever are.  Towel time.”

She carried Holly back to her room rolled up in a fresh towel and dumped her lightly on the bed, standing back to gaze down on her as she unwrapped herself and held out her arms.

“Come here, Cheeky,” Holly murmured.  

“You know how pretty you look?  I think you know how pretty you look,” Sharky said, dropping her own towel and climbing astride her, looming over her on her elbows and knees.  

“You could still try to describe it to me.”

“Aw, but I don’t word good.”  

“Just try,” Holly coaxed, reaching up to finger-comb Sharky’s damp hair.  

“Well, okay.  Your hair’s all twirly round your face, and it’s soft and loose on the bed, and you’re giving me the heavy-duty bedroom eyes.  I like… I don’t know how to say it.  I like how big and soft you are, and how strong and firm you are too.  And I like seeing you know you look good to me, because you used to be sort of weird about that.  You were so embarrassed and I just couldn't understand why.”

“Well, I felt… unsightly.  It's just…”  Holly paused, twining a lock of hair around her finger.  “When I was receiving my  _ education  _ in these matters, back in the Blue Court on Homeworld, there was a lot of emphasis on maintaining grace, poise, keeping yourself aesthetically pleasing to the superior who’d chosen you to enjoy.”

“Well  _ that _ sounds shitty,” Sharky said bluntly.  “What, like you get a hair out of place and she'll decide you're a gross slob and kick you out the door with your pants round your ankles?”

“I don't really know,” Holly admitted.  “I didn't want to find out.  My, um, my mentor emphasised that she was being very patient with me.”

“Who was that?  Not that Honey thundercunt?” Sharky asked, rolling onto her side at Holly's right.  

“Oh, no, no.  Star Sapphire.  Goodness, I wouldn't expect patience from Honey Yellow Agate.  Star Sapphire was kind to me.”

“Eh,” said Sharky, curling her lip.  “Sounds like she made you think there was something wrong with you.  I can do without that kinda thing.”

“Well, she taught me how to kiss, so you have that to thank her for, and although you favour your cock she taught me all I know about cunnilingus, so, you know, there's that,” Holly offered.  

“You don't need someone to teach you  _ that _ , you just need friends to fool around with.”  Sharky gave her a knowing smile.  “I bet you’ve learned more with us than you ever did from her, and you're having more fun too.”

“Maybe.”  Holly traced the line of Sharky’s collarbones with her forefinger.

“What was in it for her, huh?  I think she just found a smart way to get unlimited head from a cute new Agate.”

“That's not fair, you didn't know her.  She also spent a lot of time on me, teaching me about my own responses and, um, capacities.”

“Oh, she didn’t know the half of your  _ capacities,” _ said Sharky, stroking Holly’s tummy.  

“No, true.  She placed more emphasis on teaching me to masturbate properly.”

“What’s ‘properly?’  Neatly?  Tidily?”  Sharky’s eyes sparked.  “On a cushion?”

“No, no, actually she discouraged the cushion.  She said no one could see what I was doing that way.  It turned into a lazy habit with me when I was alone for a long time.”

“Ohhh,” said Sharky.  “Okay, so she liked you to put on a show?”

“Mmhmm.  And she liked to train me.  She had these weighted balls on a chain to put inside me, and I had to learn how to move to get stimulation from them.  I never quite mastered that, I would get impatient and want to pull them out and push them in.  Or  _ push _ them out.  Jay wants to do something like that.”

“I bet she does, the perv.”

“And it’s more fun her way,” Holly admitted.  “It’s all more fun  _ your _ way.  You win.”

“You win too.  A lifetime supply of all the fucking you can handle.”  Sharky rolled in and kissed her, her mouth heavy and wet.  “Sweet stuff from Jay, rough stuff from me…  You love it, don’tcha?”

“Mmm.”  Holly twined her arms around Sharky’s thick neck and draped one leg over her hip.  “You’re being sweet now, though.”

“Damn, you’re right.  Better fix  _ that.”   _ Sharky moved so fast Holly wasn’t even sure how she got thrown face down on the bed, and gave her a stinging slap on the bottom.  “That’ll teach ya.”

“Ow!” Holly cried.  “Oh, such cruelty.”

“This is for seducing all those horny dummies and making ‘em late for work,” Sharky said, hauling Holly across her knee, and smacked her ass again.  She squeezed a handful of plump buttock and kneaded it thoughtfully.  “You in the mood to get roughed up a little?”

“I think maybe… yes please.”

“Oh,  _ yes please,”  _ Sharky said, mimicking her tone. __ “Did Star Sapphire teach you nice manners too?”

“No, I’ve always had nice manners.  I said ‘excuse me’ to the rock as I emerged from it.”

“Psh!”  Sharky smacked her again and she whimpered.  “I bet you said ‘Get out of my way, you lazy lump.’”

“I — I wasn’t that rude  _ then, _ I was new and eager to please.”

“Oh yeah, cute newbie Holly.  All innocent and corruptible.  You were horny though, weren’tcha?”  Another hard slap followed by a firm rub, pushing Holly’s soft buttocks around.  “You can tell me.  I know how it is.”

“I was… aware of certain needs.  I wasn’t sure yet what to  _ do _ about them or  _ exactly _ how but… yes.”

“The first thing I saw was an ass,” Sharky said cheerfully.

“What?  Ah!”  Another slap and another in quick succession.  Holly gathered handfuls of the sheets, pulling them together under her chin.

“So I pop my head out, hello world, blink the gravel outta my eyes, direct line of sight, cute little Peridot booty, you know how they are.  I thought, oh, this life thing is a pretty sweet deal!  Then she turned round and started bossing me, which I didn’t like so much, but  _ then _ she took me down to the corral with the rest of the newbs and it was all friendly wrassling and leg-humps till we got to do a real fight.  And that’s the story of me!”  She struck Holly’s bottom again and again, a volley of smacks from her large hand, left side, right side, left side, right side, the backs of her upper thighs too till the whole area burned and throbbed and Holly was gasping and trembling.  “If I’d seen an ass like yours maybe I could’ve been even more of a pervert.”

_ “How?” _ Holly asked, with feeling.  

“We just don’t know,” Sharky chuckled.  “Oh Holly, your cheeks are just  _ glowing. _  How does it feel?”

“Hurts,” Holly whimpered.  Her whole body felt as if it was glowing with heat, her bottom and thighs ached fiercely and she was shamefully conscious of a deep, hard,  _ needing _ pulse in her pussy.   _ Imagine if Star Sapphire saw me like this.  Lying across an Amethyst’s lap, all dishevelled with wet hair, letting her, no, asking her to mess me up.   _

“Yeah, but you know you deserve it, right?”  Another sharp slap and a firm rub.  

“Ye-yes.”

“Tell me why.”  Sharky struck her with a slightly cupped hand this time; it didn’t sting as much but the noise was even louder.  “Maybe I’ll be nice to you.”  She rocked her hips and Holly felt her erection rubbing her tummy.  

“I’m a terrible Agate.  I couldn’t terrify a  _ human.” _

“You got that right,” Sharky growled.   _ Smack, smack, smack, _ so hard that each stroke jolted Holly’s body forward.

“I don’t want to work, I don’t want to serve my Diamond, I just want everyone to fuck me.”

“All you’re good for, right?”

“Right!” Holly whimpered.  “I want it all the time.  It’s so bad!  There’s always a wet spot in my pants.  I can’t stop staring at the gorgeous strong bodies all around me.  I invite Gems to screw me publicly in hallways.  I  _ beg _ them to sit on my face and smother me with their wet pussies and to fill my ass and my mouth and my cunt with hot sweet dick.  I want them to make me pregnant and I don’t even know what that would be like but I want it because I want  _ them, more, always.” _

“Wow, Holly, that was a  _ speech,” _ said Sharky, and gave her a final searing slap on the ass that left her shuddering and teary-eyed.  “And let’s see?”  She pushed her fingers between Holly’s bruised thighs and tender labia.  “Oh, you’re  _ soaked.  _  Tut-tut-tut.  What got you this juicy?  Was it the spanking or the monologuing about what a desperate slut you are?”

“I don’t  _ knowwww,” _ Holly whined.  “Oh, please…”

“Please what?”

“Please be nice…”  She pouted and undulated her body hopefully, rubbing her soft belly against Sharky’s stiff, upstanding cock.

“Mmm… maybe a  _ little _ bit.”  Sharky wiggled her fingers deeper, making Holly moan urgently.  “See, when I think about getting you pregnant, which believe me I do, I feel like it’s the  _ ultimate _ make-you-mine.  Like, making your body grow my baby?  That’d be incredible.  You like that?  I can feel you squeezing down.”

“Yessss…”  Holly closed her eyes, concentrating on the press of Sharky’s fingers against her tender spots.

“You know what, Holls?  You were a good girl when I spanked you.  You were brave and you didn’t whine.  Much.  I think you’ve earned your fuck.”

“Oh, thank you!”

“There’s those nice manners.  Okay, get off, I think I want you on your back.  That’s good.  Spread your legs nice and wide.  Hold your ass cheeks apart for me.  Hurts, huh?  That’ll get worse before it gets better.  You still wanna go?”

“Yes.  Please.”  Holly blinked the last tears away, clearing her eyes.  Sharky was kneeling on the bed just below her bottom, casting an appreciative gaze up and down her body.  She had her erection in hand and was slowly tugging it, sliding the velvety skin back and forth over the bone-hard shaft.  She leaned in and rubbed the head of it up and down between Holly’s slippery lips and twirled it against her swelling clitoris, slowly running her tongue over her gleaming teeth, eyes fixed on the spot.  Holly panted and trembled, her breath gusting in and out.

“I think,” Sharky said thoughtfully, “you’ve been so good you even deserve double dick.”  Her form flickered and a second cock slid out to obscene length just above the one she was holding.  

“Thank you...”  Holly moaned with joy and relief as Sharky pushed inside her, sleek and thick and hot, greadually lowering her weight onto her body.

“Mmm… always feels so good in here.  I’m a genius for figuring out how to get both at the same time.”

“I highly doubt you were the first.”

“Oh, she thinks she’ll get sassy now she’s got what she wants,” Sharky grunted, arching into her.

“Didn’t you tell me — ah! — one of your friends got stuck this way for a while?”

“Sh-sh-shh.”  Sharky kissed her softly and deeply, slowly undulating her strong hips against Holly’s.

“Oh yes… I must have been wrong.  You, Sharky, are the true — ah! — innovator of double penetration.”  Holly ran her hands up Sharky’s back, loving the feeling of her bulky muscles working, and crossed her ankles over Sharky’s bottom.

“Mmmm.  That’s what I like to hear.  That and your little squeaks.”  Sharky licked the side of Holly’s neck, flicking her tongue at the corner of her jaw.

“Eek!”

“That’s the stuff.”  Sharky gave a soft, chuffing laugh, the sound mingling with Holly’s panting as she worked eagerly against her.  “You feeling fertile?  I think you could be.”

“Oh, I hope so,” Holly breathed.  “You’ll make me yours.”

“But I’m gonna roll us over, ‘cuz I feel like watching you work.”  She slipped halfway out as they rolled but back in deep as Holly sat up and jammed her hips down with a groan.

“Give me your hands,” Holly demanded.  “Brace me.”  She pressed their palms together, interlaced their fingers, and gripped tight, leaning on Sharky’s strong arms as she pushed herself up on her knees and ground down again.  “How’s that?”

“Fucking great.  Love seeing you going up and down on my dick.  Dicks.  Love seeing you getting off on it like that.  That face!”  Her own face was lit with delight as Holly rode her, her brows crumpled together ecstatically and her wicked grin stretched wide.

“I’m going to go faster.”  The pleasure was building so sweetly that she couldn’t resist the urge to fuck harder, didn’t feel the least need to spin it out.  She tensed her thighs and pumped her hips, revelling in the tension building down low under her belly and yelped as a kind of preliminary thrill ran through her.  She briefly lost the rhythm when Sharky’s cock popped out of her ass and she had to reach round and cram it back in, but recovered it after a few strokes, and it felt tighter and hotter and better the faster she rode until the tension burst into a shuddering, rippling climax that pushed a cry of sheer joy out of her.  As she was slowing, still feeling giddy, Sharky was quickening her pace, thrusting roughly and clutching Holly’s hands.

“Are you nearly there?” Holly asked, a little breathlessly.  Sharky grunted in the affirmative.  “Oh, that must feel so good.  When you come, concentrate on making me pregnant, won’t you?”

“Ha!  You too.  Feel like you’ve got to want it.”

“I do, I do!  Come on.”

“You don’t hafta coach me, I’m not Chippy.”  Her body was tensing and beads of sweat stood out on her skin.

“Everyone likes encouragement!  Come on Cheeky, fill me up.”

“I’ll fill you up all right.  Put a baby in you.”

“Yes!  Do it!  Come inside me, right here, do it, do — ooh.  Ooh, you did.”  Holly bent low over Sharky’s heaving chest and kissed her, sinking into her arms.  “Thank you.”

“Can ya… hahhhh… can ya feel it working?” Sharky panted, and sniggered.

“I think so,” Holly giggled.  “Whatever  _ that _ should feel like.  I feel  _ good _ either way.  Very warm and tender in that sort of… womb-ular region.”

“You’re so weird, Holly-dolly.  Whatever gets you off.  I love you.”  She smacked a soft wet kiss against Holly’s cheek.

“I want to nap here.  My bottom is too sore to lie on my back.”

“I love ya, but you are  _ not _ light.  Lie on your belly next to me.  There we go.”  Sharky eased Holly off her and curled up beside her, laying her arm over her back.  

“If I  _ were _ pregnant, I wouldn’t be able to lie like this for long,” Holly pointed out, pillowing her head on her folded arms and turning her face towards Sharky.

“Yeah, if you  _ were _ pregnant I wouldn’t be spanking you black and blue either, so it’d work out.”

“That’s a thought.  You would have to be all tender and caring, wouldn’t you?  And treat me like your little flower?”

“Well yeah, duh, no one gets to say I don’t take care of my mate,” Sharky said, patting the small of Holly’s back.  “But I wouldn’t have to do it all alone.  You’re never gonna be short of Gems wanting to spoil you.”  She closed her eyes contentedly.  

“It’s interesting how you talk about wanting to make me yours and at the same time seem perfectly happy to share my care.”

“I know you wanna be with everyone.  I want you to be happy.  If I ever get all shitty wanting to keep you to myself, I just keep thinking about that.  If I  _ could _ keep you, you  _ wouldn’t _ be happy, even if you love me.  Plus I like to fuck around too, let’s not kid ourselves.  I want things I can’t have both of, so I just gotta concentrate on the ones I can have and how great they are.  If I get a little frustrated sometimes I’d be an asshole to take it out on anyone else.”  Sharky’s voice was settling into a drowsy murmur.  “It’s okay.”

Holly reached over and stroked Sharky’s hair back from her sweat-damp cheek and temple.  “Darling Cheeky… you know, sometimes I get sidetracked by how funny and bold and irreverent you are, and I forget about, well, your depths.  How thoughtful you really are.  And I want you to remember I do love you for that too.”  She stroked the apple of Sharky’s cheek and the smooth gemstone just below it with her thumb.

“Awww, not just how I rock your world?  Too kind,” Sharky mumbled.  She reached for Holly’s hand and shifted it so she could kiss the palm.  She released it with a soft exhalation and Holly continued to stroke her hair as she drifted into sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

Holly woke from a fitful nap, mostly because she had unconsciously rolled onto her back and her bruised bottom was not so much throbbing as pounding.  She lay still a while longer out of a combination of inertia and masochism, mentally replaying the spanking and the delirious feeling of abasement and surrender that had come with it.  Stars, that was good, in the wrongest way.  She was sinking deeper into the pregnancy fantasy too; she lay with her hand on her tummy, idly dreaming that as well as letting Sharky pummel her ass and subject her to verbal indignities she had invited her to impregnate her and it had taken, a microcosm of her own love of a gangbang, a pretty little blue egg mobbed by a throng of eager purple sperm.  It made her giggle to herself as much as it made her wet.

The ache got to be too painful, though, and she had to move.  Sharky was lying sprawled next to her, snoring softly.  In her sleep she seemed to have reset to her habitual cock and pussy combination, her penis long and thick even when it was soft and flopped against her thigh, her labia surprisingly small and neat when they weren’t engorged.  Sharky wrinkled her nose and sighed as Holly got up on her hands and knees, bent over to kiss her on the forehead, and slipped off the bed.  She stood up and stretched and felt a little warm liquid slip between her labia and run down her inner thighs, with a warmer pulse of contentment.   _ Oh, what a sloppy slut am I. _

She wandered towards the window, looking out at the stars, and glanced at her desk.  There was a new message light shining softly.  Her good mood didn’t exactly disappear but it went into suspension as she looked at that light, wondering.  It could be nothing important or it could change things.  She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, knowing she wouldn’t be able to ignore the uncertainty, and began to sit down before realising that would be quite painful, more so than she would enjoy at the moment.  She settled for standing, bending and resting her arms on the desk as she swiped her fingers over the control pad to call up the message pane.

It was her information request, an automated response, a fresh copy of the full Beta kindergarten files attached.  A good thing, she told herself.  Nothing to be worried about, routine maintenance of records.  She pulled up the index and scrolled through it, such an orderly-looking list of codes for the chaotic existence those Gems had had.  Jasper 9-2QM, exactly where she should be between 2QL and 2QN (who she always had trouble remembering was Skinny).  

Holly took a deep breath, let it out and tapped the entry.  It expanded into a new pane displaying a picture and a long block of text, much more than had been on the old file.  She really was gorgeous, with sullen pouting lips and fierce bright eyes and a body built for demolition.  If she was anything like her peers she would be voracious.   _ Stop thinking with your cunt for a minute, Holly Blue Agate. _  She scanned the text, skimming for the main points before going back to read in more detail.

The Betas should be proud of her.  A long, distinguished career, decorated repeatedly for valour, service on the battlefield and also glory in the arenas.  It really made Holly realise how cut off they were from the culture of Homeworld they were out here; evidently the Mountain was a celebrity, a hero to the rank and file, her achievements publicised all over the empire.  A role model.

_ She’s probably very happy, _ Holly told herself.   _ She’s clearly very successful.  A bad beginning hasn’t held her back at all.  They’ll be glad to hear about this and it’ll stop them worrying. _

And then she reached the bottom, and the fact that the Mountain was missing in action.  Quite recently.  On Earth.  And here was the odd thing, she, Holly, shouldn’t have been able to view this information because it was a secret mission, need-to-know only.  The same oversight that led to her having information on all Earth’s Betas and Primes seemed to apply here; she had full access despite this being well above her level of security clearance.  It made her feel furtive and guilty.  

The irritating part was that she could only see the information here in the Mountain’s own file; all the rest of the  _ context _ of the mission woud be in other documents she couldn’t access.  What she’d gone to Earth  _ for _ wasn’t clear; the code name Operation Cluster didn’t help Holly at all.  The Mountain had been assigned as an escort to a Peridot Kindergartener and a Lapis Lazuli informant.  Their names meant nothing to Holly, not that she would expect them to.  What sort of significant information would a terraformer have on the Earth?  All the work there had been abandoned thousands of years ago.  What could they be trying to do with the old Kindergartens?  Why would the whole policy of putting the disaster behind them and moving relentlessly forward be disregarded?  Did it have anything to do with continuing rebel activity on a planet that it was always implied, on the rare occasions it was acknowledged, had been rendered uninhabitable by the wrath of the grieving Diamonds?

Holly leant on her elbows and drummed her fingers on the desk.  The only reasonable choice, she realised, was to show the Betas this directly.  Then they would know as much as she did, and unless something changed, that would be that.  It wasn’t enough, but it was all she could do.  It was so unsatisfying to have to present them with a cliffhanger ending like that and she did think for a moment of just trimming that last entry off to leave them with the picture of their Mountain in her prime, but dismissed that as a false kindness.  Maybe if they waited a while she could get this updated again, but it would be a mistake to ask again too soon, that  _ would _ call attention, raise questions about her own competence.  Maybe there would be new information about a triumphant return.  It would be good to hope for that.  

“Holls?”  Over on the bed Sharky had lifted her head and was looking at her blearily.

“Yes, sweetie?”  Holly looked up guiltily.

“You up and about?  I must not have fucked you hard enough.”

“No, trust me, you did your duty.  I’m afraid to sit down.”  Holly pushed back from the desk.  “Do you want to inspect your handiwork?”  She crossed back to the bed and presented her bottom for inspection.

“Aw yeah,” Sharky sighed, reaching out to stroke Holly’s aching buttocks.  “Such a gorgeous fat ass.  That’s not gonna last long though, is it?”

“The fat’s not going anywhere,” Holly said dryly.  “It’s built in to make me resilient, just like yours.  Quartz shock absorbers.”

“The bruises,” Sharky chuckled.  She wrapped her arms around Holly’s waist and pulled her back into her lap.  Holly yelped at the pressure on her buttocks and then relaxed as Sharky slipped a soft pillow under her.

“Oh, that’s better.”

“For my delicate fuckin’ flower,” Sharky rumbled, and kissed her gemstone.  “See?  The good care starts here.”

“Mmm.  Cheeky?”

“Yeah?”  Sharky paused in stroking her belly.  

“Thank you for telling me to talk to the Betas about 9-2QM.  I’ve found some new information for them.  I’m hoping it will help them to know more.”

“Yeah?  Good.  That’s good.”  Sharky rested her chin on Holly’s shoulder and rubbed her gemstone against Holly’s cheekbone.

_ I want her to be pleased with me, proud of me.  It feels so important that she approves.  And that the Betas do… that Jay does… all of them, I think it actually matters more now than if Blue Diamond is pleased with me. _  It was an astonishing thought but it had the ring of truth.   _ I only want Blue Diamond to be satisfied with my work because then there’ll be no trouble and we can live in peace.  I want them to be happy with me because  _ I _ feel so proud and happy when they are. _

“Whassup?  You just sat up real straight like something happened.”  Sharky chuckled.  “Something fly by the window?”

“Oh, my back was stiff,” Holly fibbed.  A realisation like that, well, she needed to get used to it before she could talk to anyone else about it, even someone she loved so much.  She clambered out of Sharky’s lap and shifted over to sit against the pillows with that big soft one under her bottom, and felt under the pillows to find her little reader screen.  “I think I’m going to read for a while.”  Her request for fresh reading material had been a very good idea; she was deep into a historical epic set at the court of White Diamond back in the early days of empire building.

Sharky gave her a gentle yet pointed Look; it said very plainly, “I know you’re not telling me something but I also know you’ll tell me sooner or later so I’ll let it slide.”  She scooted up at Holly’s side and laid her head in her lap.  “Can I get a little hair petting while you do?”

“Yes, you may.”  

She was reading, absent-mindedly stroking and trying to smooth Sharky’s tangled hair, when there was a tap at the door.

“It’s just Jay.   _ May _ I come in?”

Holly smiled to herself.  “You may, just Jay.”  The door opened and Jay came through, walking with a weary roll to her stride.

“I’m beat,” she said.  “I wanna flop and this felt like the best place to do it.  Room for one more?”

“You can even have the lap,” said Sharky magnanimously, sitting up.

“Come on,” said Holly, setting aside her reader and holding out her arms, “but don’t  _ flop. _  Lie down gently and in a controlled manner.  I’ve got a very tender, bruised bottom and it doesn’t want to be jounced or bounced.”

“Yes, Mama,” said Jay, clambering on the bed and laying her head on Holly’s lap with all due care.  “Oh, that’s good.  Jay had a big day.”

“Doin’ what?” Sharky asked.  “You were in the habitats the whole time, right?”

“Yeah, those kids were really lively today.  Ran rings around me.”

“Oh,  _ poor _ you, I know that’s a job you  _ hate.” _

Jay chuckled.  “Just ‘cuz I love doing it doesn’t mean I won’t get a little tired from playing all day.”  She gave Holly a friendly prod in the arm.  “Like I bet you were tired after being so  _ popular.” _

“I was a little,” Holly said, pleased with herself.  She combed her fingers into Jay’s silky hair, fluffing it up and letting it fall back on her forehead.  

“Sorry I missed it.  I saw Chippy and she told me all about how strong and beautiful you were getting it from all angles.”

“She’s such a love,” Holly said.  “Remind me to spoil her more.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, giggling.  “I also heard from Vee she was bein’ a little shit, in the cutest possible way.  Teasing her while she fucked you.  Aw, Holly, that feels so nice.  Now I feel spoiled.”

“I can spoil you too if you want,” Sharky offered, skimming her fingertips down between Jay’s breasts and over her belly.  “I got all my aggro out on Holly so I’m feeling nice and gentle.  You can just relax.”

“Yes please,” said Jay.  “That why your bottom’s bruised, Holly Boo?”

“She spanked me quite brutally,” Holly said, stroking her hair, watching as Sharky slid down Jay’s shoulder straps, uncovering her breasts.  Stroking them lightly, she began to press soft kisses to Jay’s neck and collarbones, the very opposite of brutal.  “I fully deserved it.”

“Yeah, I bet you did.”  Jay closed her eyes, a sweet little smile tickling the corners of her mouth.  “Mmm… you know, I think I had a good idea.  I wanted to run it by you.”

“What’s that?” Holly asked.

“What if we teach them about Earth?”

“Oh.  The humans?  Well, of course you mean the humans.  What would you want to teach them?”

“Just… what it was like,” Jay said, gazing down as Sharky gently sucked her nipples.  “For starters, that there’s a place called Earth and that’s where their ancestors came from.  Where we came from.  And we remember it, and we can tell them… the sky and the sea… the flowers and the birds…”

“The thunder and lightning?” Holly asked.

Sharky lifted her head a moment.  “I miss the storms.”

“How did I know  _ you _ would miss the storms?” Holly asked, shaking her head.  She twined curls around her fingers as Sharky kissed down over Jay’s belly and her breathing deepened.  “If you did teach them, could I sit in?”

“You want to?” Jay asked, opening her eyes.

“It’s different for me.  I didn’t come from Earth, but all of you do and it’s… more important to you than I would have thought.  I think it would be good to understand more about it.”

“You would be 100% welcome,” Jay said, reaching up to stroke Holly’s cheek.

“Lift your ass,” Sharky murmured, and rolled Jay’s pants down over her broad hips as she obliged.  She tugged off her boots and pulled them the rest of the way down before nuzzling down between Jay’s bulky thighs.  “Hmm…”

Jay sighed softly as Sharky kissed her curly mound.

“Is it restful?” Holly asked.  She brushed her fingertips over the curve of Jay’s breast and rolled her nipple, still wet from Sharky’s mouth, between her thumb and forefinger.

“So restful,” Jay purred.  “Oh, it’s nice to get top and bottom together.”  She flexed upward as Holly pinched the other nipple, gently lifting both breasts before letting them settle and massaging them slowly.  Sharky was lapping, sucking, and Jay was beginning to softly rock her hips in response.  “I was thinking,” she murmured.

“You can think while we’re doing this?” Holly asked sweetly.  “Oh my.”

“Hnnn…”  Jay stretched her back, her fingers curling and relaxing.  Her cheeks were growing more flushed and her lips were softly shining.  “Thinking of things you  _ would _ like from Earth.  You know there’s like… databases in the library, right?  Catalogues of what was there?  Flora and fauna, biomes…”

“No one has ever talked about  _ biomes _ while I’m going down on them before and I’m getting sort of offended,” muttered Sharky.

Jay giggled.  “Sorry, Sharks.  Dontcha think Holly would like the flowers?  The real flowers, the wild flowers.”

Sharky looked up as if startled.  “Hey, did you say they’ve got catalogues of  _ everything?” _

“I don’t know about everything, but lots of things.”

“Like sharks?  I never saw one!  Didn’t even know about ‘em till we met XM and she said I had teeth like one!  Can I see?”  Her eyes were wide and bright.

Jay burst out laughing.  “I never had anyone go off on a rant about sharks while they were going down on me.  Should I be offended?”

“Well, it’s like… my heritage or something,” said Sharky.

“Are you sure it’s not just that you met this super cute Gem and felt like this instant connection with her and she was like ‘hey you look like a shark, Sharky,’ and you were like ‘yes, I am Sharky, Sharky am I, sharking is totally my thing now?’” Jay teased.

“You were into her too,” Sharky said.  “Sticking out your chest and flipping your hair, trying to make her laugh.”

“You know it!  Finish what you started and then I’ll show you the real sharkies.”

“On it,” said Sharky.  “Oh.  And yeah, Holly would love the flowers.”  She returned to her soft, avid licking and Jay moaned sweetly, rocking back her head.  

“Well, I like the flowers we have here,” Holly said.  Sometimes Quartzes would bring them to her from the habitats and tuck them into her hair; they smelled sweet but wilted and fell apart after a while.  “And I like you, and the little sounds you’re making as Sharky works your pussy.  My pretty purple flower.”

“Aaahhh…” Jay sighed, gently rolling her hips.  “Keep going just like this.  I love it.”  Holly watched her avidly, the little shifts in the bloom of her skin, the dreamy passage of expressions over her face as her pleasure built into bliss.  She had one softly trembling orgasm, then another, then gradually grew still and calm, her eyes closed and her face peaceful.

“I think she fell  _ asleep,”  _ Sharky said, sitting up and wiping her chin on the back of her hand.  She sounded more impressed than indignant.

“I think you’re right,” said Holly, twining one of Jay’s curls around her finger.  “I think she just got  _ so _ comfortable there was nothing else she could do.”

“She’ll owe me one,” Sharky said philosophically.  “She  _ is _ cute when she’s all sacked out like that.”  She clambered over to Holly’s other side and leaned companionably against her, wrapping her arm around her waist and snuggling into the pillows.  “This is downright cosy, Holly-dolly,” she said, rubbing her soft cheek on Holly’s shoulder.

“Aren’t you cuddly today?” Holly asked, amused.

“Must be because I’m getting ready to be a mommy.”

“Oh,  _ you _ are?”

“Just as much as you are.  Any kid you have, I can feed too, right?  Handy dandy.  A few times I’ve seen a human just start making milk on their own ‘cuz there was a baby that needed them, the birth mother couldn’t feed it for some reason.  Or we can give ‘em the hormones to get started.  Sometimes we’ve had pairs where they’re both female, I mean, they’ll Choosen with male humans to have a baby if they want to but that’s kind of… they’ll do it as friends and get it done and that’s all, he’s not their mate.  Anyway, some of them want to share feeding the baby, and some of the time we’ll give ‘em hormones but sometimes they just pull it out all by themselves!  It’s pretty impressive.  So if they’ll do that, I can do no less, right?”

“Sharky,” Holly said carefully, “this is a fantasy…”

“I know,” Sharky said, grinning broadly.  “I’m fuckin’ with ya.”

“Oh good,” Holly said, chuckling in relief.  

“But I’d totally do it.  I may not be as kid-crazy as Jay but yeah, any baby  _ I _ made?  It doesn’t matter whether she came out of me or out of you, dang, I’d wanna feed her and bathe her and brush her hair and teach her to fight and all the rest just as much as you did.”

“Well.  Good.  I’m glad to hear it.  For this hypothetical situation.”

“Yeah.”  Sharky slipped her hand under Jay’s hair to rub Holly’s lower belly.  “If you had a baby with Jay you’d hardly get to hold it.”

“I’d insist.”  Holly turned her head to kiss Sharky’s cheek.  “I’d get tough if I had to.”

“Mmm, tough Mama.”  Sharky smiled lazily, her eyes half-lidded.  “I kind of like the idea.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.  I don’t want you to go back to yelling and pushing us round, but you know, tough-but-fair Holly would be pretty cool.”  

“I don’t know whether… well, I just got the hang of my new persona.  Morale officer is fun.  It feels so nice to be someone people are happy to see.  Can I be tough but fair  _ and  _ be, well, free and easy?”

“Hrrmmm.  Maybe kind of a tricky balancing act,” Sharky murmured.  Her voice was a drowsy rumble.  “Maybe you could just be tough about your babies.”

“Babiessss?  Plural?”  But Sharky was asleep.  Holly resigned herself to not getting an answer and found her reader again.  She was a little uncomfortable with both Sharky and Jay leaning on her, although her bottom wasn’t nearly as sore now as it could have been.  She felt quietly proud of her quick regeneration.  Even if she was from very late in Era One, she had the resilience of a much older Gem.  She wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold up her head among luminaries like the characters in the book she was reading right now.  Everything they did had such a feeling of grandeur to it; she’d have to recommend this book to Chip.  She nodded off to sleep with her head full of elegance and ancient courtly intrigue.

 

Chip scrubbed herself well before going to Holly’s room.  She had done a lot of dirty work this shift, helping break up the drain hairball and eject it into space, cleaning the drains themselves, servicing machinery; when she had had time to check in with her personal humans they’d wrinkled their noses and giggled at the smell of her.  Humans were forgiving; they’d hugged her anyway and then scampered off to take a bath themselves.  She didn’t want to gross Holly out, though, so she had a very thorough shower and paid close attention to her nails.  She was humming to herself, from time to time closing her eyes to contemplate the memory of Holly in the hallway, her smooth skin shining with sweat, moving her strong, curvaceous body so insistently to pleasure herself and her partners, looking up with eyes that spoke so eloquently when her mouth was busy.  

And then the fantasy grew,  _ Holly _ growing, her belly swelling out, ripe and full, Holly glowing with motherly contentment, inviting her to cuddle.  She got hard just thinking about it, and stood under the warm shower spray, looking down at her thick erection in indecision.  Save it for Holly, or jack off now and maybe last longer next time with Holly?  She was really having difficulty with that; she’d done a good job today but so often when she sank into Holly’s pussy or ass it felt so good so  _ fast _ that she had no hope of fucking her as long and hard as Jay or Sharky seemed to do so effortlessly.  She’d always been a  _ bit _ quick to come, her friends teased her gently about the Chipsplosion, but with Holly it had gone to a new level, and all Chip wanted was to be able to give her the kind of deep sustained drilling she obviously really loved.

“Psst,” said Skinny, who was beside her washing her hair, “it’s a boner.”

“I know  _ that.” _

“Well, you were staring at it like you didn’t recognise it, so I thought I’d help.  A boner is a fun and useful little buddy on your body!”

“Cut it out,” Chip said, giving her a half-hearted punch in the shoulder.

“Try rubbing it, sticking it in a friend’s pussy, or making it wear a teeny-weeny hat.”  Skinny cackled as Chip shoved her again, blushing.  “I’m just helping you out!”

“If you want to  _ help _ me teach me how to go longer.  I’m on a hair trigger whenever I fuck Holly.  It gets embarrassing.”

“Aw, you shouldn’t be embarrassed about that,” said Skinny, patting Chip’s shoulder.  “Honestly, I think she’s flattered.  Like the idea you can’t really contain yourself around her gives her a big kick.”  She chuckled.  “Remember a couple of days ago, when she was explaining something in the cargo bay, and then she turned round and bent over to point something out and she was just talking and pointing and her ass was right in front of you and then —”

“That was the most embarrassing thing ever,” Chip moaned.

“— then she turned back round and you were standing there with your cock stretching out your pants?  And you panicked and  _ saluted _ her?”  Skinny clearly though it was a hoot.

“I didn’t know what to do!  It felt so unprofessional!” Chip sputtered.

“Oh, as if she cared.  You saw how flirty and… what’s the word… coquettish!  She got all coquettish on you, didn’t she?  The last I saw she was taking you round behind that stack of pallets.  What happened there, huh?”  Skinny poked her in the boob with one long finger.

“That’s just it,” Chip sighed.  “She was cuddling me and nuzzling me and she’d only just got her hand inside my top and I came.  Like right through my pants.  That was a new low for me, usually I at least need someone to touch me on the dick.”

“Oh wow.  Yeah,” Skinny said sympathetically.  “Okay, I get why you were embarrassed about  _ that. _  Holly didn’t tell you off or anything, did she?”

“No, no, she was really nice about it.  She giggled and kissed me and said I was adorably eager and ooh, I came so  _ much.   _ And then she invited me to suck her titties and fingerbang her till I felt like I could go again.”

“See?  She liked it!  You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.  Holly will understand.”

“I don’t want her to  _ need _ to understand, you know?”  Chip shrugged unhappily.  “I just want to give her the best.”

“Oh, come on.  You get down on yourself way too easy.  How long have we been friends?” Skinny asked.

“I dunno, a really long time.”

“Who’s the first Prime I ever fucked?”

“Oh yeah.  That  _ was _ me.”

“And I picked you because you were cute and friendly and you didn’t act sorry for me because I was from Beta, and I stuck with you because you’re kind and a good sport and I always enjoy being with you.  So you’ve got lots of good stuff going for you, and the fact you sometimes bust a nut if someone breathes on you the right way doesn’t take away from that.  Remember that.”  Skinny pulled her into a hug, folding her long thin arms around her.  She was so tall she could rest her cheek on top of Chip’s head.

“Aw,” Chip mumbled.  “Thank you.”  The tip of her cock was nudging between Skinny’s slick wet thighs; the smooth gap between them didn’t feel as good as Holly’s velvety pudge but it made her tingle.

“Yeah.  Also, I can try to help you last longer.  At least to get some practice in.  Wanna do that?”

“Yeah, please.”

Skinny led her over to a bench and sat down beside her.  “Okay, you need to think about Holly while I’m doing this.”  She licked her palm and wrapped her hand around Chip’s erection, making her grunt softly.  “And when you’re nearly there you tell me, and I’ll back it off.”

“Okay.  Holly and me do this sometimes too.”

“Great.  I bet you love feeling like she’s coaching you.”  Skinny moved her hand gently up and down.

“Mmm… yes.”  Chip tilted her hips more comfortably.

“Hey, what’re we doing?”  Carnelian had come over from the hot pool, her skin still steaming lightly.  The heat radiated off her stocky little body as she hopped up on the bench on Chip’s other side.  

“We’re edging Chip to try and help her last longer when she fucks the lovely Holly.”

“Oh, nice,” said Carnie, laying one hot little hand on Chip’s belly and leaning up to give her a kiss on the cheek.  “You should ask Holly to fuck  _ you _ sometime.  We’ve been training her good.  I take full personal credit for what Holly can do with her dick.”

“That’s not… that’s not really what I want.  I mean… I’d be grateful, I know it’d feel good, but I just really like the combination we’ve got.”

“I feel like some people dick up to make Holly happy even when it’s not their favourite like it is yours,” Skinny said, shrugging one shoulder.  “We like to encourage her to welcome other possibilities.”

“Yeah, I mean have you noticed with Jay?” Carnelian asked, running her hand up to squeeze Chip’s breasts.  “She used to favour her pussy nearly as much as I do, but these days she’s always fucking Holly with a cock.”

“Well, Jay’s like me,” Chip tried to explain, although most of her focus was on how good it felt in Skinny’s steadily pumping hand.  “The whole, uh, reproductive fantasy.  Human-style.”

“Yeah, but  _ that _ always used to be her getting off to  _ being _ pregnant, not getting someone  _ else _ pregnant.  Maybe her taste’s just changed, but maybe she’s trying to please Holly.”

“There’s nuh-nothing wrong with trying to please someone you love,” Chip pointed out.  “And have you  _ seen _ Holly playing pregnant?  She’s  _ so _ beautiful.  Such a lovely mama.”

“Do you wanna be her mate or be her baby?” Skinny asked, snickering.  “The way you call her Mama…”

“Oh, shush up,” said Chip, pushing into Skinny’s hand a little.  “Mama’s just an idea.  Mama is… is warm and snuggly and taking care of you and making you feel safe, Mama is big soft breasts and a curvy belly and thick thighs, Mama is — mmm!”  She had to stop and pant a moment, and Skinny slowed her stroke.

“Take it easy, hotshot,” she murmured.  “We don’t want to cream Mama’s pussy  _ yet.” _

“No… no.”

“That’s right,” Carnie said.  “I mean, I can’t  _ prove _ it but I definitely think a good hard orgasm helps conception, so if you want a nice fat pregnant Holly you wanna take it slow and get her off before you.”

“That’s a good point,” Chip said.

“I’m full of good points,” said Carnie, licking her forefinger and rubbing the slit in the tip of Chip’s cock.

“That is  _ not _ helping me not come,” Chip gasped.  A large bead of clear liquid bubbled up and trickled down the underside of her shaft to Skinny’s curled fingers.  The pleasure was swelling up huge and she didn’t know how to bring it back down.  She tried to brace her feet on the floor.

“Breathe through it,” Skinny said, smiling and rubbing faster.  “Think how good it’s gonna feel inside Holly, when she’s moaning and bucking her hips and squeezing down on you.  You’re gonna stay hard and steady and pump that pussy till — oh.”  Chip was coming helplessly, so forcefully that spurts of semen landed on the floor in front of her feet.

“Ohhh…” she moaned, the rush of pleasure giving way to dismay.

“It’s a work in progress,” said Skinny, giving her thigh a consoling pat.

“I was doing okay till you started talking about Holly bucking and squeezing down.  Then I just couldn’t help it.”

“It’s okay,” Carnie said.  “Personally, I take it as a compliment when you can’t hold back.”

“Yeah,” said Skinny, licking her fingers, “and from the sounds of it Holly does too.  And don’t you always satisfy her other ways?”

“Well… yeah.”

“It’s just not that big of a deal,” said Carnie.  “What if you even  _ assumed _ it was gonna happen and just let it?  Call it a preliminary.”

“Sometimes it happens on the second try too, though.”

“Well, ya know, you  _ could _ stop it.  Remake your dick so it’s less sensitive.”  Skinny gave her a knowing look.  “But you’re not gonna do that, are ya?  ‘Cuz you’ve kept the same super-sensitive, gets hard if you see something vaguely butt-shaped, squirts off at a moment’s notice cock your whole life.   _ And _ you used to phase it off while you were working, but look who has it formed all the time now, hmm?  You only leave it blank in the habitats.”

“Lots of people do that now,” Chip protested.  “Ever since XM came and all the rules were off.  You see all  _ kinds _ of bulges in our pants.”

“Yeah, and that’s fine, and we do it ‘cuz we can do whatever we want with our bodies now and it’s fun.  I’m just saying,” Skinny said with a chuckle, “you  _ like _ having a dick that acts like an adolescent human’s or you’d’ve changed it long ago.”

“True,” said  Carnie.  “If you thrill to the embarrassment of the unpredictable boners then I guess the whole quick-release thing is just a trade-off you’ve gotta live with.”

“It’s a minor  _ short-coming,” _ said Skinny, and Carnie snorted appreciatively and high-fived her.

Chip pouted.  They were  _ right _ but she didn’t usually think of it that way.  Or realise other people saw through her so easily.  “You must think I’m being really dumb.”

“It’s okay, Chippy, we love you.  You can be just as peculiar as you want.”  Skinny ruffled her damp hair.  “My advice?  Rinse off and go see Holly, like you’re dying to.  Kiss her and call her Mama and just enjoy being her pet.  Oh, but wipe up that puddle first, ew.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parts of this chapter were influenced by [this Chip art](http://zawa-ro.tumblr.com/post/164565241156/oh-no-shes-getting-closer-conceal-cover) and [its sequel](http://zawa-ro.tumblr.com/post/165178148381/nngghbonus-chip-vs-skirt) by zawa-ro. I enjoyed them.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's some more Chip and Holly pillow talk and humpery.

Chip knew from experience that you could hear from the corridor if Holly was actively entertaining; you could make out muffled sounds a few feet from the door and if you put your ear to it you could hear really well.  A few times now she had come down here hoping to pop in, paused to listen first, and got caught up in what she could hear, Holly’s lovely voice rising and falling in joy and the harmonising voice or voices of her different lovers.  She’d stood there with her ear pressed to the door, listening raptly and getting harder and harder.  After a while she’d just dropped her pants and started masturbating, feeling sure Holly wouldn’t mind.  She’d been sure someone would come along and catch her at it, and it made her pant and rub faster, especially when she could hear Holly moaning with more and more urgency.  It was kind of a surprise when she’d come and knew she’d got away with it.  Even when she came back a few minutes later with a sponge to clean up the spunk on the wall she didn’t think anyone had come by.  Almost anticlimactic.

This time when she listened she couldn’t hear anything, so she decided to peep inside and just see whether Holly was in.  The lights were turned low but there was plenty to let her see more than one resting body on the big round bed, their shapes softened by the misty curtains.  She let the door close quietly behind her and tiptoed closer.  Jay and Sharky, the perennial favourites, were lying cuddled up together and Holly was a little separate from them, curled on her side with a reader under her hand.  Chip drew back the curtain and climbed onto the bed very carefully, so the mattress didn’t dip suddenly and jostle Holly.  She sat cross-legged beside her, her chin in her hand, gazing at Holly’s calm sleeping face.  Her plump lips were parted just a little and her dark feathery lashes were fanned on her cheeks.  Her hair was loose, messy twirling curls draped over her neck and shoulders and soft wispy locks framing her face.  Chip both wanted to stroke her cheek and didn’t want to disturb her sweet sleep.

She risked very slowly sliding the reader out from under Holly’s hand.  She was reading something called  _ Brilliant Cut.   _ It was very Holly, elegant and refined, all about the courtly diplomatic world she’d come from and Chip had never seen.  She tried to imagine being a guard at that ancient court; maybe Holly’s personal guard, not that an off-colour specimen like herself would be picked for a job like that; she would have to have the right look, like those two over there, but this was a fantasy so forget that.  And as long as she was fantasising, how about if the exquisite courtier Holly Blue Agate, high-level diplomat and confidante to Diamonds, was having a torrid secret affair with her quietly dutiful guard?  Exchanging glances that no one else saw.  Stealing kisses behind blue velvet curtains.  Whispering, “We shouldn’t be doing this,” even as Chip drove her to orgasm.  

Maybe Holly would write something like that if Chip suggested it?  She knew the setting, after all.  Holly seemed to have lost some confidence in her writing these days, which was a shame.  Or did she just not feel the need for it any more?  Or was she too  _ tired _ to write now, were they all wearing her out with sex on top of her work so she had no energy left to be creative?  Chip gnawed at her lower lip, fretting, trying to tell herself not to fret when she hadn’t actually asked Holly how she felt.  And Holly looked like she was getting some good rest now.  So it would be really wrong to disturb her, no matter how much Chip wanted to kiss her soft lips and feel Holly’s warm strong arms around her and snuggle against the cushion of her breasts.  

She sat trying not to fidget for a little while before shifting to lying down beside Holly, still trying not to fidget, hoping to relax and maybe nap beside her.  After a while that felt unrealistic too, so she switched the reader to writing mode and lay tapping in some ideas of her own one-handed, pillowing her head on the other arm.  She was frowning over her description of Carmine tenderly helping Cerulean out of her armour after she’d won a mighty duel, wondering if it was even believable for Cerulean to feel romantic when she was as beat up as she’d described, and if she should go back and rewrite the fight a bit milder, but that would mean losing some really  _ cool _ stuff Cerulean had done, when she noticed Sharky was stirring and then rolling over with a soft grunt.  

Sharky sat up and yawned hugely, scruffling her hands through her thick mane of hair.  She dropped one hand to scratch her belly and looked around, leaning back on the other arm, and saw Chip.  “Hey, little buddy,” she said with a drowsy smile, the usual gruffness of her voice softened to a husky purr.  “Good day’s work?”

“Yeah,” Chip said, nodding.  “Pretty good.”

“And you wanted to come see Mama as soon as you could?  Don’t be embarrassed,” she added, seeing Chip glance away as her cheeks heated up, “it’s really cute how deep into her you are.  Why didn’tcha wake her up?”

“I wanted to let her sleep.  You know, she must be tired after all we put her through.”

“And what I put her through too,” Sharky said with a crooked grin.  “Check out the bruises on her ass, those are mine.  Hey, we can clear out and let you have some prime Holly time.”  Before Chip could say anything she was nudging Jay awake.

“Whas wrong?” Jay asked faintly.  “The chil’ren okay?”

“Everything’s fine.  I want you to get up and show me those sharks in the library.  C’mon, I’ve been waiting.  Plus Chippy’s here now, so she can take over Holly-satisfaction duty.”

“Oh, hi Chippy,” Jay said, peering at her one-eyed as she rubbed the other.  “Yeah, I can show you some sharks.  Gimme a moment to get moving.”

“Okay, but shh, ‘cuz Holly’s in dreamland still.”  The two of them rolled off the bed with great, exaggerated stealth, regenerated their clothes and sneaked out of the room blowing silent kisses behind them.  Chip was left on the bed, half-sitting up, feeling a little baffled by their generosity.    She heard a little sound and looked down to see Holly was wrinkling her nose, frowning a little, her eyelids flickering without quite opening.  Chip froze, waiting, her mouth slightly open, wanting her to wake but not wanting to disturb her.  Holly rolled onto her back and seemed to settle again, one arm folded across her tummy and the other hand softly curled by her cheek.  She sighed faintly and Chip lost all resolution and bent to kiss her lips. 

Holly seemed to begin kissing back before she really woke up, her lips pressing up to Chip’s and then drawing back with another sweet, soft sigh, blinking up at her.  A little smile dawned on her face.  “Hello, sweet Chippy.”

“Jay and Sharky went to see… sharks in the library?  I’m not sure what that was about.”  Chip kissed her gladly now, plucking lightly at her lips with her own, upper, lower, slipping in her tongue and feeling Holly welcome it.

“Life on Earth,” Holly murmured as their mouths parted.  “They want to give the humans lessons.  And Sharky wants to see her namesake.”

“Oh, neat,” Chip said, brightening.

“Did you… love the Earth too?” Holly asked.

“Um.”  Chip lay down on her side, resting her head on her arm.  “Not like I love you and everyone else.  I could be at home anywhere as long as I had all of you around me.  But Earth is still part of me and I remember things about it that meant a lot to me.  Like the trees and the grass and the flowers.”

“Jay thought I would like the flowers,” Holly said.

“They’re a lot wilder than we have here.  Scruffier.  Like… the flowers here, they’re perfected, they’re like you.  Earth flowers are maybe more like me.”

“Then I love them already,” said Holly, rolling to face her.  “But darling, I’m so very far from perfect.  Don’t think of me that way.”

“You’re elegant.  You  _ look _ perfect.  Well,” Chip added, compelled to be honest, “you look perfect when you’re all dressed with your hair up and everything.  Right now you’re more… casual.”

Holly just chuckled ruefully.  “What kind of flowers did you like best?”

“Oh… I didn’t get to see nearly all of them.”  Chip closed her eyes a moment, recalling a battlefield before it was a battlefield, just a field, a meadow where wildflowers grew scattered through softly waving grass that gave way to woodland.  “Daisy… poppy… violet…  I’ve seen some beautiful blue flowers.  Morning glory and forget-me-not.  Cornflower, hyacinth, love-in-a-mist, bluebell.”

“You should show me those,” said Holly.  “They’re pretty names.”

“I put some of them in the pictures I drew for the Cerulean Chronicles.  Like you wrote about Cerulean wearing ‘an enamelled suit of armour intricately figured in heavenly blue,’” Chip said, savouring the beautiful words.  “I had trouble imagining the intricate figures.  I thought about how devoted Cerulean is, how even under the Enchantress’ spell she remembered Azzurra, and I came up with a pattern of forget-me-nots.  Here, if I can find it…”  She fiddled with the reader screen and pulled the folder of her drawings.  It made her feel glowing that Holly had saved them there to look at.  “See?”  She turned the screen towards Holly.

“I wondered what that delicate little pattern was,” Holly said.  “Aren’t you clever?”

“I don’t know,” said Chip, blushing.  

“Does Carmine have a special flower for her armour?”

“Red carnation,” Chip said promptly.  “I, um, I was… I was thinking about trying to write a little story about them myself, if that would be okay with you… I had some ideas…”  It was a fib, she had a  _ lot  _ of ideas and a lot of disjointed scenes both written and in daydream form, but nothing she could call a real story, not like Holly’s whole  _ books.   _ (Holly’s  _ stories _ were a lot like other books she had read, sometimes nearly the whole plot was the same… but that just meant they were good in the same way.)

“Of course it’s okay.  Carmine is yours, and, well, if you wrote Cerulean doing something I really don’t think she would do, I’ll just say so.  Tell me all about it.”  Holly pulled over pillows for both of them, her eyes bright.  

“So, um, okay.”  Chip tucked her pillow under her head and gathered her thoughts.  She was still dressed, and Holly was so softly naked, and she wondered if she should undress too while everything felt so nice and cosy.  She thought she’d wait for an invitation.  “Well, this is when Cerulean is back at Azzurra’s court, and Carmine is this little squire, well, she  _ wants _ to be a squire but no one has time to train her until Cerulean comes back.  And she’s just in total awe of Cerulean after she defeated the countess’ champion and cast her out, and at first Cerulean is really stern with her but she warms up after they have this adventure together.”

She tried to describe it all with Holly gazing at her, the night trapped in the ravine, the beast, Carmine’s moment of panic and then of resolve, and how they greeted the dawn arm in arm.  Then the journey home, the encounter with Viridian the Valiant who had been corrupted by a remnant of the Countess’ power and become Viridian the Violent, their epic duel… and at last, homecoming, and Carmine tenderly helping Cerulean out of her armour, tending to her bruises and her wounds, and easing her into a warm bath… then Cerulean inviting her to join her.

“Oh, it’s  _ this _ kind of story,” Holly said archly.  “New territory for Cerulean.”

“Is that okay?” Chip asked, a touch anxious.  “I know you never put anything  _ explicit _ in the Chronicles, and  _ definitely _ not two different Hues together, but…”

“It’s fine.  It’s lovely, it’s  _ yours.”   _ Holly stroked her cheek, her neck, traced her fingers down into the V-neck of Chip’s uniform and tugged at it very lightly.  “And if different Gems can love each other, so can different Hues.  Tell me what they got up to in that bath.”

Chip did her best to describe it, not sure at first she was getting the mood right.  Then she began to feel more confident, because of the way Holly stroked her as she talked, cupping and rubbing her breasts, sliding her hands down to stroke her tummy, till Chip’s breathing fluttered and she lost the thread of the scene, her cock stiffening and stretching her pants, begging to be touched.

“Please, Mama,” she breathed.  

“Get rid of your clothes, you silly,” Holly said, and rolled her onto her back as they disappeared.  She lay on her hip and elbow beside Chip, smiling down at her, and brushing her fingertips up and down the underside of her erection.  “Keep going.  I’m enjoying this story.”

“Oh gosh.  Um, okay, but it’s gonna get pretty muddled I think.  Uh…”  Chip tried to remember where she’d been up to before she felt Holly’s soft palm and strong fingers curling round her.  “Uhh, so Carmine was kissing Cerulean’s hands, right?”

“Right.  You’re such a good storyteller.  I can imagine  _ just _ how that feels.”

Chip tried her best, though she knew she was making less sense with Holly rubbing and squeezing like that.  When she began to get too hot and flustered, when the words wouldn’t come, Holly would slow down, back it off, coax her and prompt her back to the story, till Chip began to think she was enjoying playing with her as much as hearing the story.

“And, and then, um… oh, Holly, that feels too good.”

“Oh dear, shall I stop?” Holly asked sweetly.

“No-no-no-no-no!  I can do it, I can — can get to the end.”

“Can you, though?”  Holly got up on her knees and straddled Chip’s hips, lowering herself to press her pussy down and pin Chip’s cock against her tummy.  She swivelled her hips and Chip gasped at the bloom of wet heat.

“Or if you just want to fuck…” she faltered.

“Who says I want to fuck?  I can hold still if you can,” Holly said, folding her arms under her breasts.  “Tell me, what’s next?”

“I — I can’t hold still,” Chip admitted.  Her hips were twitching even as she tried to stop them.  “I — I think Carmine and me have got that in common.  If she had Cerulean ss-sitting on her like this, she couldn’t — she — uh…”

“And if Cerulean were sitting on Carmine like this, I think she would be feeling very proud of her strong, sturdy squire who’d held out so long.”  Holly rocked gently back and forth, her breathing just beginning to roughen a little.  “Oh, yes, very proud indeed.  Brave Carmine, steadfast Carmine, devoted Carmine…”  Her wet labia felt like a sliding kiss, and her tongue flickered between her lips.  “And someone who’s been as lonely as Cerulean, for as long as Cerulean,  _ oh,  _ she’d need this.”

“Oh, Holly,” Chip breathed.  “Oh…”  She grasped Holly’s hips and pulled her against her body, stroking eagerly, not even trying to hold back for once.   _ I’ll take care of her, I will, I just, this feels so good —  _  Then she was coming, pulsing with pleasure, spurting a stream of thick white up her own belly, even spattering the underside of her breasts before the full intensity of it passed.

“Oh my,” Holly said.  “What a beauty!  Was that a relief?”

“Ye — yes,” Chip panted.  “Sorry…”

“Why be sorry?  Getting to see you come is a real treat.  There’s always so  _ much. _  So  _ lavish.” _  Holly swiped one fingertip through the streak of spunk and sucked it clean.  “Mmm.”

Chip gave a faint, breathless little laugh, beginning to relax.  “This is okay, isn’t it?”

“I’ve tried to tell you that it is.  You,” she said, pressing that wet fingertip to Chip’s breastbone, “are exactly how I want you to be.  I love my eager, excitable Chip.  I love seeing and feeling you losing control because of the way you feel about me.  I’m also a person who loses control.”  She paused, seeming to rethink that, and shifted her position as well, lying down close at Chip’s side with one leg still draped over her body, one hand still resting between her breasts.  “No, I’m a person who  _ surrenders _ control.  That feeling, yielding everything up to my feelings and sensations and the person drawing them up in me just then, gives me so much pleasure there are no words for it.  I don’t know whether you want to surrender in the same kind of way, it might be scary or unpleasant for you, so please don’t think I’m saying you  _ should, _ but if you  _ do, _ or if you want to work out your own kind of surrendering that would feel as good for you, I’d love to help you do it.”

“Oh,” said Chip, feeling a fresh bloom of heat under Holly’s hand and in her cheeks, a head rush that made her feel giddy even lying down.  “Oh,” she said again, trying and failing to find words, and settled for kissing Holly urgently.  

“Does that sound good?” Holly murmured.  “It  _ feels _ like it sounds good.”

"Does it sound dumb," Chip asked wistfully, "if I say I admire you so much when I see you like that?"

"Not dumb," Holly said, "but I'm not sure I understand."

“You’re so beautiful,” Chip said, “and so loving, and so strong.  I mean, you have to be strong to fuck like that, right?  I’ve seen you getting fucked in your pussy and your ass and sucking another cock and rubbing two more, I don’t even remember who, but you were just riding in the middle of all that and you were perfect.  You just take everyone who comes to you and you give them such beautiful feelings with every part of your body that you can and you love doing it so much…”  She sighed, and admitted, “Sometime I wish I could be like you.”

“So you would like to do what I do?” Holly asked.

“Well, not like I  _ could,” _ Chip said with an awkward chuckle.

“Oh, I bet you could if you tried.  I didn’t think  _ I _ could at first, but everyone will help you just as much as they helped me.”  Holly looked down a moment, then up again at Chip from under her lashes, her voice lowering as if what she wanted to say now was more private than private.  “For me,” she said, “so much of the pleasure is the… the submission, the feeling of being  _ used _ but  _ lovingly  _ used, every part of my body that can  _ give  _ pleasure is used, I’m a — a vessel for it…”  Her voice trailed off; Chip could see from the movement of her eyes that she was thinking, trying to put words around a feeling.

“A vessel?” she asked, hoping to help Holly keep going.

“At the height of it,” Holly said, “I feel almost mindless, with no thoughts, just feeling, and I feel that I’m a thing to fuck.  I’m a pussy, I’m a cunt, I’m a hot, wet, needy fuckhole and that’s my purest purpose.”  She blushed and bit her lip, and went on a little hastily.  “I don’t mean I think that’s the truth about me, the  _ whole _ truth, I do think I have something to offer all of you in terms of organisation and leadership and so on… but it’s a feeling I really love to have, when I’m worked up to it, when I surrender to it and embrace it completely.   _ That’s  _ what I’m feeling in a moment like you were describing, when you said you admired me and wanted to be like me.  Does that sound good, sweetie?”  Her voice was warm, and coaxing, and encouraging, the voice that made Chip feel as if she could do almost anything.

“Mmhmm.”  It was all she could get out; her throat felt thick and hot and her mouth felt dry, she was quivery with arousal again and the cum all over her belly wasn’t even dry yet.  She slid her hand up the underside of Holly’s thigh and pressed closer against her warm, plump body, breathing in the smell of her skin.  Holly kissed her forehead, stroking her hair.

“That’s so good,” she murmured.  “Don’t ever be too embarrassed to tell Mama what you want, okay, my darling?  I just want to help you get it.”  She guided Chip’s head to rest on her soft breasts, cuddling her with her cheek resting on Chip’s mussed hair.  “Do you just like knowing Mama feels that way, baby, or do you want to feel that way too?”

_ Do you wanna be her mate or be her baby? _  Skinny had been teasing and Chip’s answer about what “Mama” meant had been true, but  _ also  _ true was how incredibly good it felt to be babied like this, embraced and snuggled by a warm, motherly Holly who wanted Chip to fuck her too.  She wasn’t sure when and how exactly Holly had learned to  _ be _ like this (probably Jay had been an influence) but she didn’t want it ever to stop.  “Wanna feel it too,” she mumbled.  

“That’s so good, baby, it really is.”  Holly wrapped her arms around Chip and gave her a gentle squeeze.  “I’m proud of you.”  She kissed the top of Chip’s head.  “Why not try it?”

“Aw, I couldn’t,” Chip said, feeling the pleasure and comfort dim a little.  “What would the others think?”

“What are you worried they’ll think?” Holly asked, sounding confused.

“That I’m weak,” Chip mumbled.  “I’m already the smallest Amethyst.  Well, sort-of Amethyst.   That I’m a pushover, I’m not tough like them.  Not Prime material.”  It was hard to say these things; she worried about them so far underneath her other thoughts that she had to pull them right up with an effort.

“Do you think they think  _ I’m  _ weak when I invite all of you to fuck me?” Holly asked, stroking her back.

“No!” Chip exclaimed.  “No, but it’s — it’s different for you.  You’re Holly, you’re our Agate, you’re special.”

“I’m a pretty strange kind of Agate these days,” Holly said, and Chip thought she could hear a smile in her voice.  “But lovey, I think you’re mistaken.  I don’t think they see you that way.  When they talk to me about you all I hear is how sweet you are and how highly they think of you.  And remember, there are lots of them who love to be on the receiving end, without that meaning they’re any less than the ones who give it to them.  Right?”

Chip made a doubtful noise in her throat, a sort of low whine, wanting to believe Holly but still worried.  She just wasn’t sure that  _ applied _ to her.

“Even Sharky likes a nice hard fuck in her pussy from time to time, and you know how rowdy and dominant  _ she _ is,” Holly said with an affectionate chuckle.  “Do you think you’d like Sharky to fuck you, baby?  Just like Mama?”

“I can’t just go right in and do what you do,” Chip said, alarmed.  She wasn’t ready for  _ that. _

“No, no, not if you don’t want to,” Holly said, patting her soothingly.  “I’m not saying let’s call her in to mount you right now.  But we can talk about it and think about it, right?  Like talking about getting me pregnant.”

“Oh, right.  That’s always good.”  Chip relaxed a bit, and slid her hand to cup over Holly’s lower belly.  She closed her eyes, taking a deep calming breath.  Okay, she’d admitted to something she tried not to think too much about.  Holly had understood and not thought it was weird or bad or stupid.  And she didn’t have to  _ do _ anything about it.  It could just be a little fantasy to talk about with Holly alone.  That, like lying in Holly’s arms, felt nice and safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this feels like it's not quite the end of this scene, that's because it's just a lull, but it took me so long to get to this point that I thought I'd nip it off here.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a short chapter and I can't explain why it took me so long other than complete and utter blockage but I hope you enjoy it. It's just continuing what Holly and Chip were up to last time.

Holly threaded her fingers through Chip’s soft hair, wondering what other secret aspirations were in this head.  She had been so absolutely precious confessing what she wanted, so nervous and eager; her bravery had encouraged Holly to try to describe those intense, wordless, shameless feelings that affected her so deeply.  Even if Chip said her insecurity about this wasn’t Holly’s fault, she was sure she couldn’t have helped matters, undermining poor Chip’s confidence berating her; every comment about inferiority or off colours must have stung her especially if she was comparing herself unfavourably with the others.  It seemed like the least she could do to share her own feelings and encourage Chip in hers, even if it was far more than she could do to repair all that past damage. 

“I don’t want to rush you into anything,” Holly said, feeling a little anxious as well as guilty.  “I’m still learning to be encouraging so if I take it too far and become overbearing  _ please _ tell me it’s too much.”

“Nah, you’re good.  I really like you encouraging me, and when you say you’re proud of me it feels so good I just  _ wiggle. _  You know?  Like a happy wiggle?”  Chip wriggled her shoulders, trying to demonstrate, and felt Holly’s laughter through her chest and tummy as well as hearing the sound.  She kissed the breast nearest her cheek and snuggled in again.  “You telling me you’re proud of me for sex things, um, it really tickles a funny place inside me.  I like it.”

“Well, I’ll remember  _ that.” _  Holly nuzzled the top of her head, feeling guilty tears prickle in the corners of her eyes and breathing deeply to keep her voice steady.  “No need to rush anything, but just… just remember, I wasted an awful lot of time concentrating on the wrong things to make me happy.  I wish I could get all those years back and spend them being happy with you.  You’re not doing exactly the same thing because you’re not hurting anyone, but if you’re holding back from trying to do things you really want because you’re worried about how your friends will see you, that could be a waste too.  And it makes me worry that you might be doing things you don’t really like or want because you feel they’re expected of you.”

“Oh no,” Chip said quickly, “it’s not like that.  I love what I  _ do _ do.  It feels really good and knowing I’m making someone else feel good at the same time makes it even better.”

“Okay.  Good.  And you’ll get enough praise and pride from me to make you wiggle ecstatically.”

Chip tipped up her chin and pressed a warm kiss to Holly’s cheek.  “Thank you.  Um…”

“Um?”

“Um… well, I was talking with Skinny and Carnie a while ago about what kind of  _ body  _ roles people like, you know?  Receiving or giving?  And they were saying how they try to get you to switch from what you usually do.  Is that cool with you?  You’re having fun?  Not just trying to do what  _ they  _ expect?”  Her eyebrows were creased together with concern.

“Oh, those two scamps,” Holly said.  “That’s all fine.  I enjoy how they fluster me.”

“It kind of sounded like you only form a dick ‘cuz they want you to, though.  Like… peen pressure.”

Holly chuckled at the little joke.  Chip didn’t usually  _ make _ jokes, although she often said things that got a laugh and then got confused and embarrassed because she wasn’t  _ trying _ to be funny.  “Well, sometimes I enjoy just doing what they want me to do.  Letting them boss  _ me _ around.”

“I don’t wanna boss you around, though,” Chip said.  “It feels better when you’re in charge.”

“I’m so glad you trust me enough for that.”  Holly kissed her mouth, soft and wet and sweet, then paused, breathing against her lips.  “Are you asking for the same thing?  So you can try the receiving role?”

“Um, maybe?  Only if that’s good for you too, I don’t want to be selfish or anything.”

“No, I’m proud of you for asking for what you want.  Keep doing that.”  Holly cupped Chip’s cheeks in her hands and kissed her snub nose.  “Does that tickle your funny place inside, you sweet little slut-in-training?”

“Oh wow.  Um, okay, I  _ really _ like you saying  _ that.” _

“Sweet little slut?”

Chip closed her eyes blissfully.  “Mmm.”

“The sweetest.  Maybe even my assistant morale officer.  Could you do that, darling?  It’s a big job but it’s a lot of fun, as long as you really love sucking cock.”

Chip gave a gurgle of smothered laughter and wriggled her hips and shoulders furiously.   _ “Holly!   _ Oh my gosh, your voice still sounds so  _ proper.”   _ Her laughter faded into a wistful sigh.  “Do ya really think I could?  Would I be good for morale?”

“Oh, you’re so  _ cute. _  I don’t see how you could be anything  _ but. _  Morale will skyrocket when they feel these soft lips.”  Holly rubbed her thumb from side to side over Chip’s plump lower lip, then slipped it into her mouth.  “Show me how you suck.”

“Mmhmm.”  Chip sucked obediently, swirling her tongue.  

“Oh, that’s  _ good. _  You know what you’re doing, don’t you?”  Holly felt a fresh bloom of love, a deep pulse of heat down low in her cunt, gazing at her sweet little face, wanting to coach her into whatever she wanted to be.  There was something so perversely warm and cosy about saying all these filthy things cuddled up together in her bed.

“Mmmmm.”

“Of course you do this for your friends, but you want do it for everyone, right?  Till your mouth and your face are all sticky and wet and your tummy is full?”

“What does it feel like?” Chip asked.  “Like sticky, wet, full…”

“My jaw aches a little when I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I feel so proud of myself, so good.  My mouth, my throat, feel like a well-fucked pussy.  My lips feel so swollen and puffy, and I can’t stop my mouth watering, I don’t want to.  They stroke my cheeks and my hair, they ask me if I can do one more and I always open wide.  I love watching each one’s face as she feeds her cock into my mouth, the change of expression as she starts feeling that pleasure.  I love feeling her push deeper, feeling those big muscles in her ass and her thighs flex — a lot of them like me to just pop my finger into their bottoms or their pussies at the same time for extra stimulation — and I suck, suck, suck, I use my tongue, I let them use my throat, I  _ love _ hearing that deep grunt and feeling the gush when they come.”  

Holly paused to kiss Chip’s mouth, sucking her tongue, sliding one hand down to stroke her erection, gently squeezing it as she went on.  “And they’re all so sweet and polite, you know, they fuck my throat but they always say thank you.  I do have some fantasies where they’re rougher with me, not quite so sweet, but I love how they are.  Sharky can be rough.  She’ll gather my hair into a bunch in her fist and use it to move my head and hold it in place.  Would you like her to do that, baby?  Hold your head still while she fucks your mouth?”

Chip whined softly, pushing into Holly’s hand.  “Can I practise with you?  Not to hold my head, just…”

“Of course.  Of course, let me just… it’s not very impressive at first but I’ll get it right in a second.  It’s just — it’s just a two-step process.  There,” she concluded with relief.

“Wow.  I never saw it  _ out _ like that before.  It’s bigger than I thought!”  Chip looked down between them, her eyes bright and wide.

“You approve, then?”

“You bet I approve.  I can touch it, right?”

“How else would you practise?”  Holly nibbled at her lower lip as Chip’s fingers traced the length of the shaft, then breathed in deeply as she wrapped her hand snugly around it, squeezing gently.  Chip handled her cock with an easy confidence in contrast with her shyness, steadily stroking it.  She seemed more comfortable and familiar with it than Holly felt; it still felt more like something she was wearing than part of herself.

“That feels good, right, Mama?”  Chip gave her a little crooked smile.

“You know it does, lovey.  Oh…”

“Um… this might sound dumb.”

“Well, tell me anyway, I won’t mind.”  She nuzzled Chip’s soft cheek.

“I don’t know if I want to practise now.  I love you talking to me about it.  I do want to suck you off.  I don’t wanna try to — I don’t want you to try and act like they would if they were doing me because… I don’t know…”  Chip hesitated, breathing gustily as Holly stroked her in turn.  “I still want to make you proud of me.”

“You already do.”

“I think I just love you being warm gentle Mama so much… it’s so good… I’m mixed up but I do kind of sort of also want you to fuck me.  Maybe I wanna practice  _ that _ part.”

“Do you think it would work if I tried to do both?  A warm gentle fuck?”  Holly rubbed her nose lightly against Chip’s.

“Mmm… yes please.”

“What would make it really, really lovely for you?  Let me do that.”

Chip sighed, her hips undulating as she thrust into Holly’s hand.  “Kissing,” she breathed.  That was easy, and Holly could feel her eager response, the little ruffle of goosebumps that ran over her skin.  “And play with my butt?” Chip added hopefully.

“Like this?”  With her other hand Holly slipped her fingers down between Chip’s buttocks, leading with the middle and pressing them apart with first and third, till she reached a yielding spot and felt them squeeze together briefly.  “Yes?”

“Mmm,” Chip moaned.  Holly felt her relaxing as she kept stroking, with occasional flickers of tension, still kissing her sweetly and making such lovely little sounds in her throat.  The snug little opening admitted the tip of her finger and twitched lightly around it; it felt slick, if not as slippery as she tended to make her own for comfort.

“I’ve never done exactly this,” Holly said, “so I’m going to go slowly, and gently, and you tell me straight away if anything is not quite right.”

“Really never?”

“Not in the ass.  Carnie and Skinny aren’t enthusiasts.”

“But you know how it should feel.”

_ “Oh _ yes, I know how it should feel.  If I can make you feel the way you make me feel, you should be  _ very _ happy.”  She wiggled her finger deeper and Chip moaned deeper too.  She moved her hips restlessly and rolled onto her back, drawing up her legs.

“If we do it like this you can keep kissing me…”  She gave a little grunt and tucked her hands behind her knees, hitching them higher.

“You look so gorgeous like that,” Holly told her.

“Kinda slutty?” Chip asked with a hopeful, bashful grin.  Holly kissed her with a delighted laugh.  She hitched herself into position, her hands on the bed either side of Chip’s body.

“If you’re ready, I’ll come in now.  Yes?”

“Oh yes.  I really want — yes, it’s — ooh…”  Chip looked down between them as Holly put her weight on one arm and used her other hand to guide herself into place.  “You like seeing it go in, right?”

“I really do.”  Chip’s body felt feverishly warm and it enveloped Holly tightly as she pushed in deeper, the ring of her anus flickering around her shaft.  “Oh… is this good, baby?  Still comfy?”

“Yeah, it’s — it’s tight but — ooh...”  Chip let out her breath in a long, slow gust as Holly slipped deeper.  “Ooh, you’re right in there.  It’s really  _ hard.”   _ She gave a breathless giggle.  “And thick and fat and hot.”  Her head dropped back with a moan.

“Oh, your face is so sweet!”  Holly surged forward, scattering kisses over Chip’s cheeks and neck, rolling, pumping her hips.  “They’ll line up to fuck you, Chippy.  I’ll be so proud, my darling, and oh, your soft little ass feels so very, very good.”

Chip’s cheeks were flushed burgundy red, and her breasts and tummy, pressed into plump folds by her position, were gently bouncing with Holly’s thrusts.  She looked dazed but she reached out with purpose and threw her arms around Holly, clasping her hands over the nape of her neck and drawing her to rest their foreheads together, noses rubbing, lips and tongues slipping in and out of eager kisses.  Holly found she felt dizzily, tenderly protective of Chip even as she fucked her, even as Chip whimpered, “You can do it harder.  I  _ want _ you to do it harder,” and she panted back, “Yes, baby, Mama will fuck you just as hard as she can.”  That, more than the fierce, greedy pleasure she felt through her cock, was overwhelming her with delight.   _ I love my Chippy, I love my sweet soft strong baby, I want to make her so happy, I want to make her scream for joy. _

Chip didn’t scream but as the tension built in her she couldn’t keep quiet; she began to babble against Holly’s lips, “Holly, Mama, I think I’m — oh fuck I think I’m coming, I’m nearly there, I’m — oh  _ fuck!   _ Mama, please, I need, I need it,  _ oh _ stars, oh Holly, it fuh-feels like I’m coming, I kuh- _ keep _ coming, Mama, I’m coming,  _ please!” _  When she did come her whole body shuddered and her cock spurted copiously between them, sticky warmth smearing against her belly as Holly worked up to her own sweet, sharp climax.  She clung, panting, to Chip’s hot stocky body, both of them slick with sweat, and dropped her head on her shoulder as the last of it rolled through her.  Chip was moaning faintly and Holly very much hoped she wasn’t hurting; she would check just as soon as she could move or speak.

“I love you so much,” Chip murmured.   

“I love  _ you. _  Are you okay, my darling?  If you’re not used to it anal sex can take a lot out of you.”

“No, it put a lot  _ into _ me,” Chip said, and giggled.  

“I must have fucked you silly,” Holly said, lifting her head to smile down at her.  “Do you think that’s it?”

“Mmm, yeah, I think so.  Oh, I feel so full… but will you take it out so I can feel myself leaking?”

“You’ve learned my messy habits.  All right, hold still and you can see how you like it — but then I’ll help you clean up.”  She drew out and shuffled back, guiding Chip’s legs down and watching her face.  Her eyes widened and she bit her lower lip with a soft little grunt.  Then there was a little moist popping sound and the colour in her face, which had been fading back to its normal shade, darkened again in a blush as it continued.

“I’m sorry!  I’m not farting at you!  I wouldn’t!”

“It’s all right, lovey, that happens sometimes.  A little air gets pushed in and escapes later.”

“I know  _ that,” _ Chip said, “it just seems wrong to do it  _ at you.” _

“You blew bubbles,” Holly pointed out.  The creamy puddle spreading on the sheet under Chip’s bottom was distinctly foamy.  Chip gasped as if shocked by herself and then began to giggle helplessly.  Holly rolled to lie beside her, wrapped her arms around her and kissed her firmly on the cheek.  “Such a sloppy little slut,” she said fondly.  “You’ve made me proud.”


	20. Chapter 20

_ I don’t deserve to be this happy. _

That was the refrain in Holly’s mind again and again, dazed and disbelieving and a little guilty, but still so deeply, richly happy.  Occasionally there was a sarcastic little onlooker voice that asked her why she  _ was _ so happy when she had ruined her life and betrayed her Diamond, but she was increasingly able to tell that little onlooker to get stuffed.  Clearly, her happiness was not supposed to be service and terror.  That flew in the face of everything she’d always been taught but you could only argue with the obvious for so long.  It was weird, and ridiculous, and undignified, but her happiness now lay in things like being sandwiched between Jay and Sharky as they both pounded into her, or letting Chip suckle at her breast before mounting and fucking her, or spending a relaxed evening entertaining a friend or two or three, or starting her morale officer rounds flushed and tingly and ending them trembling and sweaty, or hearing whoever was making the morning briefing announcements round off with “And on a social note, today’s Holly’s anal-only day, so have fun with that!  She sure will,” or “By special request, Holly has a dick today and will gladly service you ladies like the stud she is,” or whatever perverted little challenge they’d decided to set her.  

The latest brainwave in that department had been Holly Tally Day, when everyone had been issued with a marker and instructed to leave a mark in the appropriate area to indicate whether they’d come in Holly’s mouth, pussy or ass, as a sort of popularity contest.  She had ended up with tallies all over her tummy and buttocks, her cheeks and throat, and some of them had decided to be creative; “CUM HERE” was written in curly script arching over the border of her pubic hair and in big block capitals across her ass.  Sharky had written “FUCK” and “ME” on her inner thighs with helpful arrows pointing up for anyone who might need directions.  Kay had taken her time to write “QUEEN SLUT” in beautiful calligraphy surrounded by flowers across Holly’s breasts.  There was an “I love Mama xoxo” on her arm from Chip and an assortment of autographs, stars, and endorsements like “#1 fucktoy,” “perfect ass” and “juicy cunt” scattered around the rest of her.  

At the end of the day there had been a public counting of tallies, with her pussy the winner by two votes.  It had been a day full of fucking and debauchery, obviously, but also a day of teasing and tickling and helpless giggling and it had made her feel oddly, delightfully loved.  Maybe it was just that having a sort of scorecard on her body made her feel like an achiever.  When she had taken a much-needed bath at the end of the day she had felt just the smallest bit wistful about washing off all the writing.  As Jay had pointed out, that left a clean slate for the next time they wanted to play that game.

It was strange that she could be so happy but still have such frightening dreams.  She understood dreams better now; they were a human mental phenomenon that apparently Gems could replicate when they mimicked sleeping.  The mind, in a sort of half-operational state, generated muddled pictures and stories that were partly memory and partly imagination.  She wasn’t the only one whose dreams could be disturbing.  Sometimes she would be doting over a sleeping Quartz and would see her closed eyelids begin to flicker, her breathing quickening and her body tensing or twitching.  She might wake and begin crying, or with a sudden gasp and wide, wild eyes.  Once 8XL had suddenly clapped a hand over Holly’s mouth and rolled over her, as if she were shielding her with her body, and held them both still for several stifling moments before relaxing and whispering, “All clear, they’re gone.”  A moment later she had seemed confused about what was going on, and then embarrassed and dismayed when Holly explained.  

“It’s okay,” Holly said, stroking back her tumbled hair and wondering what you  _ said _ for things like this.  Hugging and hair-stroking usually seemed to help.  “It’s just a dream, Ellie,  you’re just remembering things that are over now.  You’re safe.”

“I hope I didn’t scare you.  Or squash you.  I know I’m heavy,” Ellie said, rolling back to lie beside her.

“My extra-large darling,” Holly said, trying to make her smile and partially succeeding.  “It’s fine.  I’m pretty sturdy.”  She hesitated.  “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not much,” Ellie mumbled, wrapping a lock of Holly’s hair around her finger, staring at that rather than at her face.  “We all get that kind of dream from time to time.  You’re right, it’s just memories.  We hug each other and calm each other down and we’re okay.  It’s weird because usually I think I’m over all that war stuff, but I guess it’s still down in my mind somewhere.”

“What did you think was happening?” Holly ventured.  “I mean, were you remembering something that really happened then?”

“A time Kay and I nearly got caught — we’d got separated from the platoon and we had to cross through enemy territory to get back to them.  A mob of Crystal Gems passed so close to our hiding place, down in this little shrubby gully, we could see their feet.  They could have seen  _ us _ if they’d just looked  _ through _ the bushes instead of  _ at _ the bushes — you know what I mean?  We probably would’ve charged them and taken our chances except we’d been given some intel by an Aquamarine that we needed to take back.  It was  _ so _ hard to hold still and keep quiet when our whole bodies were saying ‘Get ‘em!  Get ‘em!’  I put my hand over her mouth and she put hers over mine and we just held onto each other with our other arms.  They had this  _ huge _ fusion with them, one of those mixed-gem monsters with eyes and arms all over the place.  So really we wouldn’t have stood a chance, even if the two of us fused, but it was  _ so hard _ to do.”

“But you did it and you got back safely,” Holly said brightly.  “Because here you are!”

“Yeah.  I don’t know why I remember it, it wasn’t the worst thing that happened to me.”  Ellie shook her head dismissively.  “You ever have weird dreams?”

“I do, but they’re not about things that have happened to me.  They’re about things I’m afraid  _ will _ happen.  I dream that I go into my room and Blue Diamond is there and she  _ knows. _  That’s all that happens, she turns to me and sees me and I know she  _ knows _ and I wake up terrified in a cold sweat.  Once I backed out of the room and the door closed and I tried to scream for help but I had no voice and then the door opened and she burst out head and shoulders and grabbed me.  Or I dream that you’ve all disappeared and I’m all alone and I keep looking for you and I’ll never find you.”

“Aw, Holls!  That’ll never happen,” Ellie assured her, kissing her forehead.

“Or they’re  _ responsibility _ dreams.  I dreamed there were all these  _ little _ Gems running around, not little like Carnie but like human juveniles, and I was responsible for all of them but I couldn’t keep track of them because they were just  _ constantly _ moving and I was sure something terrible was going to happen.  I blame Jay for that, making me think of babies.  Don’t laugh, it was stressful!”

“Sorry,” Ellie chuckled.  “But that is a pretty funny picture.  Were they cute?”

“They were cute but they were  _ bad. _  They had punched all these holes in the baseboards so they could run from room to room without opening doors and I couldn’t follow them!  They got into the ventilation system!”

“They do sound like our kids.”

“I hope any offspring of  _ mine _ would be better behaved,” Holly huffed.

“Yes, Mama, your babies would be perfect.”  Ellie pulled her close and kissed her, sliding one hand down over her tummy.  

“I know it sounds silly,” Holly mumbled, “but I really was so scared in that dream.  You know how in dreams you don’t know  _ how _ you know something but you do?  I knew they were very, very important and if any of them were lost or harmed it would be absolutely terrible.  I mean cataclysmic.”  Ellie was stroking her inner thigh and nuzzling at her neck, licking the tender spot under the corner of her jaw.  “But you aren’t worried, I see.”

“Not worried at all.”

“But then there’s the dream with the  _ crying. _  It begins like the one where you’ve all vanished and I’m alone on the station forever, but then I hear this pitiful high-pitched crying.  I don’t know if it’s one of you or a human or what, but I need to take care of it and it’s so small and lost and it makes my chest hurt, and I’m looking for whoever it is everywhere and I just can’t find them.”

“Holly.”

“What?”

“That’s a mommy dream.”

_ “What?” _

“So many of them get it, there’s a preset Little Voice response.  ‘It’s okay, that was a dream, your baby is safe and sound, see?’  It’s right up there with that dream they all seem to get about falling from a height, or not being able to move when something’s coming to get them.  Exes says they’re survival instinct dreams.  Even when they’ve lived for thousands of years in an environment where nothing’s gonna hurt ‘em, there’s still this stuff right deep down in their brains saying ‘Beware of heights, don’t freeze if you’re in danger, always keep an eye on your babies.’”  Ellie smiled at her lazily as if she weren’t saying anything outrageous or disturbing.

“Well,  _ I _ shouldn’t have that!” Holly protested.  “At least the first two, I’m a lot less vulnerable than they are but I  _ could  _ be harmed by a fall or an attack so it makes sense to have those instincts, we all do, but I only  _ play _ about having babies, it isn’t a serious, survival, instinctual sort of thing.”

“Holly.”

“What?”

“Where’s your hand?”

Holly blinked and registered that she was cupping one hand to her belly as if shielding it.  “This is ridiculous!” she wailed.

“Oh no, don’t get all stressed out about it,” Ellie said.  “I just thought it was funny and cute, nothing serious.  You’re so into it!  That’s all.”

“I’m not anybody’s mother,” Holly insisted.

“Oh shit, have you told Chip?”  Ellie snickered and fended off a swat from Holly.  “Okay okay, dropping it.”

“You were perilously close to losing your sleepover privileges,” Holly said sternly.  “I don’t mind if you tease me but don’t make fun of my Chippy.”

“Okay, yeah, cheap shot.  I promise no more.”  Ellie snuggled close to her again.  “Hey… if you  _ were  _ pregnant… I think it should be by me.  I mean, I was your first, right?”

“You were.”  Holly rested her cheek against Ellie’s rumpled hair, holding in a little amused tut at how quickly they all rushed to the idea it should be  _ their _ baby.  “And you were so kind to me, helping me to get comfortable.  I was  _ so  _ nervous and confused and — well, I was a mess, but you made it as easy for me as you could.  I couldn’t  _ believe _ how good it felt.”

“I gave it to ya good,” Ellie said, a little smugly.  “You didn’t quite come that first time though, did you?”

“No,” Holly admitted, “but it wasn’t your fault.  I was just that bit too tense.  I needed more time.”

“That’s okay.  I didn’t come my first time on the receiving end either, ‘cuz I was so  _ interested _ in the whole thing.  I kept saying things like ‘there’s so much more space inside me than I realised!’ and ‘it feels so wet and slurpy, isn’t that weird?’ and poor ol’ Kay was pumping away trying not to lose her rhythm.  Then it slipped out and she stuck it back in my butt by accident, so I got two first times in one.  I have to tell ya we were  _ really _ bad at it at first.  But it felt good and we were having fun and it took our minds off everything else, and practice makes perfect, right?”  Ellie’s hand was between Holly’s thighs again, gently stroking.  “It was so cool getting to be part of your breaking-in.  Really nostalgic, you know?  I hadn’t had a chance to do it with someone it was  _ new _ for in I don’t know how long.”

“Would you like to have that again?  I don’t know how we could manage it…”  Holly thought of the bubbled Rose Quartzes again; technically she  _ could _ let some of them out, she supposed, although it would involve working out a way to break into Blue Diamond’s room without setting off a security alarm that would send a signal right to Homeworld, and that seemed like an extreme risk to run just for the possibility of new fuckbuddies.  And after all, what if the Rose Quartzes popped out in an unfriendly mood?  They would have every reason to.  

“Nah,” said Ellie, smiling against Holly’s cheek and sliding her hand a little higher, fingertips brushing Holly’s pubic hair.  “First times are fun and exciting but it gets so much better.  Less accidental dicks in butts, for one thing.”

_ Fewer, _ Holly thought and didn’t say.  “True.  If I feel a prodding there I know it’s very much intentional.”

“And you say come right on in, don’tcha?”

“I certainly do.”

“Mama loves it in the ass.  How ‘bout if you feel a tongue sliding along your pussy lips?”  She demonstrated with her fingertip.

“Then I spread my legs wider and prepare to be very happy.”

“Let’s get you there, huh?”

“Oh, yes  _ please.”   _ Holly settled on her back, drawing up her knees.  Ellie shuffled down between them, looking up at her with a mischievous little twinkle.  Holly closed her eyes and breathed in deep, feeling the sweet warmth lapping at her lips and reaching inside her.  “Ooh…” she sighed, her fingers curling.  “I really don’t deserve you, but this is  _ so _ nice.”

 

The dreams kept coming, though.  The simple answer was not to sleep; there was absolutely no practical need for it, but she was so accustomed to it now as an indulgence that it was hard to drop the habit.  It felt so comfortable and right to snuggle down between her lovers and drift into slumber with their strong arms possessively wrapped around her.  It wasn’t  _ fair  _ to wake up from that cold with dread, fresh out of a dream in which she was trying to find the crying baby while simultaneously not letting Honey Yellow Agate, there for an inspection, know that anything was wrong.  She tried to talk some sense into herself.   _ You are perfectly safe.  You’re among friends, real friends.  They don’t worry about these things, they just enjoy the present moment.  Do the same.  You’re a lucky Gem.  And don’t sleep. _

Even if she didn’t let herself sleep, if she stayed awake while they slept around her and tried to read or to draft Choosening plans or to review the detailed reports on the humans’ behaviour that they were always writing and that she was trying to take an interest in, the same thoughts and fears would come sneaking back in.   _ Why now?  There was a while when I didn’t think of anything but wanting them and pleasing them and how they could make me feel.  What’s gone wrong?  What will I  _ do _ if we’re found out?  Well, I’ll have no choice, I’ll have to fall on my sword and try to protect them, make it clear everything was my fault… well, everything  _ was _ my fault…  and hope they’ll be safe without me… but how could they be?  I don’t want to leave them!  And I don’t want anyone to hurt them, I don’t want them to have some strict new Agate who’ll be just the same as I was or worse.  What if she’s horrible to Chip?  She  _ would _ be, wouldn’t she?  I always was.   _

She couldn’t stop worrying about it.  There was fear for herself, that she might be shattered outright, or imprisoned, or given some miserable punishment like exile, but the worst part of any of those would be that she could never see her Quartzes again, and she would be afraid for them the whole time.   _ What kind of person have I turned into?  Is this better or worse?  I still feel as if I should only have this kind of devotion for my Diamond, but it’s so hard to love someone that way once you know what it’s like to love someone who loves you. _

She did her best not to show any of her fears to the others.  What kind of morale officer worried and fretted and thought of the worst?  She was supposed to be fun and flirty and affectionate and endlessly horny and she should really concentrate on getting to know each of them better and learning what made them happy.  There were still so many of them that she really only knew physically, personalities and friendships that she’d never paid enough attention to.  All these years and she’d just caught on that the other distinctly off-colour Amethyst, the pinkish one the others called Rosie (a nickname Holly thought might be in rather bad taste) was a close friend of Chip.  She couldn’t say anything like “You should have told me.”  She just had to swallow her embarrassment at being so oblivious and make a point of inviting Rosie to join her and Chip for a sleepover and spoiling them both.  

She managed to convince herself that she was on top of it until one morning, during the general milling about and discussion after the daily briefing, Kay cracked a silly joke about not letting Blue Diamond see the large love bite on Holly’s neck (high enough that it showed above the collar of her top) and Holly found she was screaming at her before she had really decided to do it.  Her voice raged on and on, “What is  _ wrong _ with you?” and “Do you have  _ any _ idea of the consequences we’d all face?” and “Do you  _ realise _ that she has to come back sooner or later?  That she  _ will _ remember about this place?  Do you  _ realise _ we’re living on borrowed time, you stupid creature?”  Everyone was staring at her, eyes wide and shocked, and she couldn’t stop herself.

“What the fuck was that for?” Kay cried, her face flushing.  “What’s wrong with  _ you? _  You just lose your shit on me for nothing?”

“You don’t understand  _ anything!” _ Holly screamed back.  

“Okay, okay,” said someone, putting a hand on her shoulder.  It was just the wrong thing at the wrong moment; Holly flung her hand up and back in a wild swat, the back of it smacking an unseen face, and as they fell back with a muffled “Shit!” her hand just carried on to the back of her head and wrenched out her whip, cracking the lash down on the floor with a strangled cry.  

Everyone drew back with one sharp step.  There were gasps and mutters.  Holly’s face burned, her head ached, her breathing was so harsh and ragged it hurt and she felt with a horrible certainty that she had ruined everything.  Why not go on, if it was ruined already?  But her arms hung heavy from her shoulders and the ragged breathing was becoming sobs.  

“Let’s all keep calm,” said the voice from behind, and this time she recognised it as Jay’s.  She came into sight on her right, holding up her hands, palm out, although then one hand went to her own lower lip, which had a small split in it near one corner and was already beginning to swell.  She dabbed at it and then looked at her fingertips doubtfully.  “And let’s give Holly some space.  Right?”

Holly tried to say she was sorry, but her breathing was so painfully fast and hard that she couldn’t form the words.  She dropped the whip and ran away.  

It was a long time after that, although she wasn’t sure how long, that she heard a knock at her door.  She didn’t move at first.  Her nose was completely clogged and her eyes were swollen with tears of anger and shame.  She lay under her blanket and pillows as she had been since she exhausted herself with crying.  The knock came again.  

“Holly?”  It was Jay’s voice again.  “Hey, I didn’t forget about you.  I thought you needed time to cool off.  That was a pretty epic meltdown.  Can I come in, babe?”

_ How can you talk to me like that after the way I’ve behaved? _  Holly pushed herself up, rolled off the bed and lumbered to the door.  When it slid open she saw the damage done again, Jay’s beautiful mouth discoloured at one corner and the lower lip puffed out of true.  “I’m so sorry,” she croaked.  “I hit you, that’s terrible.”

“You look worse than I feel,” Jay said, bluntly but not unkindly.  “Were you  _ trying  _ to hit me?”

“No.  I don’t know.  I wasn’t thinking, but that’s no excuse.”

“Can I come in?” Jay asked.  “We can talk about it if you want.”

“Is there any point?”

“Holly.  Everyone is worried about you.  A little pissed, yes, but mainly worried, because that back there wasn’t like you.”

“It was,” Holly said miserably.  “That’s exactly what I’m like.  I just kept it under control until today.”

“You weren’t paying attention back when we were going through all our own shit,” Jay said, “and we hid it from you anyway because we didn’t expect you to understand.  People lose it sometimes.  I, personally, have lost it and said mean, rotten things or hurt my friends.  I still feel bad about it sometimes.  Please let me come in, Holly.  I don’t want to leave you dealing with this alone.”

Holly backed into her room, wrapping her arms around herself.  Jay stepped in, her hands resting easily at her sides, and the door slipped shut behind her, enveloping them both in shadow.  “You just sitting in the dark?” she asked.  “Mind if I turn on a light?”

Holly shook her head.  As the lights came up she trudged back to sit on the side of her bed.  Jay followed her and sat down beside her, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her hands clasped.  “I think you’re feeling pretty bad,” she said, “and I don’t want to poke you where it’s sore, but we’ve got to talk.  The way you were yelling sounded like you were venting pressure that had been building up a while.  Is that right?”

Holly nodded and rubbed at her cheek where the drying tears were itchy.  She was surprised by the tone of Jay’s voice with her next words; there was a little wobble of worry that she wouldn’t have thought Jay should be feeling.

“Have I made it hard to tell me what’s really going on with you?”

“What?”

“I thought we were going to talk about everything now.  If there’s anything worrying you, I thought you’d tell me, but it seems like you’ve just been storing it up.  Have I made you feel like you shouldn’t tell me about those things?  If you can tell me how, I want to stop it.”

Holly blinked and sniffed, wishing her nose would clear.  “This is just my problem,” she said.  “I’m in command here.  I’m the one who’s failed, at least the way anyone from Homeworld would see it.  It’s not fair to impose on you.”

“That’s such total bullshit,” Jay said.  “I love you.  I want to know.  Sharky too.  She’s just expressing it by growling and stomping right now, so I told her to wait while I talk to you first.  And Chip’s gone and taken it all on herself that she didn’t notice you were unhappy.  Keeping this stuff to yourself hurts us more than protecting us or whatever you thought you were doing.  And then you blew up anyway, so was it worth it?”

“Kay must be furious with me,” Holly muttered.  

“Her feelings are hurt,” Jay said.  “And she’s confused like all of us.  If you talk to her you can make it right.  This isn’t anything you can’t come back from.”

“I took out my whip,” Holly said, shaking her head.  

“Yeah?” said Jay.  “I agree that was bad.  But that looked to me like something you did when you were panicking, and you didn’t follow through.  You cracked it on the ground like ‘stay away from me.’  You didn’t try to hit anyone.  That’s what I mean about coming back from that.  You say, ‘I’m sorry.’  You say, ‘I shouldn’t have blown up at you like that and next time I’ll tell you if something is bugging me before it gets that bad.’  That’s what she needs to hear.”  She reached over and rubbed Holly’s knee.  “That’s all it takes.  This was a fuck-up.  It wasn’t a  _ huge _ fuck-up.”

“Why are you always so kind and patient?” Holly asked.  “I’ve done nothing to earn it.”

“I love you, silly.  I know you’re trying.  I wouldn’t be so fuckin’ patient if you weren’t.  That’s how you’re earning it.  Don’t just look at today, look at how you’ve been over the last few weeks and months.  Look how happy you’ve made people.  Look how much it changes this place when the Gem in charge  _ wants _ the Gems under her to be happy.  It’s the whole vibe of the thing.”

“But if this is what I’m really like…”

“Are you thinking the whole time that you don’t give a shit how we feel but you’ll do what we want to get what you want?”

“No!” Holly exclaimed.  

“Then when you’re good to us, that’s what you’re really like too.  I don’t know who the fuck told you that the worst parts of you are the only real parts but I’d like to sock her one.”

“Those are the Agate parts, though…” Holly mumbled.  “They’re the essence of what I am as a Gem.”

Jay clucked her tongue.  “Are you still feeling stay-away-from-me-ish or could I give you a hug?”

“Hug, please,” Holly said in a small voice.  Jay scooted up closer to her till their hips touched and gathered her into her arms.  Holly hid her face in Jay’s soft curls and breathed in the warm, slightly musky, slightly sweet smell of her.

“Do you wanna change your name?” Jay asked.  “Holly Blue Amethyst sounds pretty.”

Holly gave a little rueful snort of laughter.  “Changing my name doesn’t change my nature.”

“Well, call me a subversive if you want, but I don’t think our nature is just what they tell us.  I think those are just the parts of us they want to use.  Even if that was the last thing she had on her mind, Blue Diamond showed me that by bringing me here.”  Jay stroked Holly’s back, her hand moving in a slow circle.  “Why are you so scared of her coming back, baby?  You used to be walking on air when she showed up.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“How would it be any different from before?  Her Pearl always calls ahead, right?  We’d at least have time to pull our pants up.  Kay’s got her dirty art set up so one switch changes them all to patriotic portraits and inspiring slogans.  So we’ll get everything ready just like always, except wouldn’t it go even better now because we’d be working together?  And you’d be proud of us?  And when she left it’d be celebration orgy time?” Jay finished with a little chuckle.

“But none of you are afraid of me now.  Won’t it show?”

“Baby, I don’t think she pays that much attention to us, like, ever.  It’d even be kind of fun putting on a big act.”  Jay leaned back to try to see Holly’s face.  “Hmm?”

“I… I agree that Blue Diamond probably wouldn’t notice a difference,” Holly said, although admitting it still stung the little part of her that wanted to think she and her work meant something to Blue Diamond.  “But what if there’s an inspection?  Remember  _ years _ ago when Laguna Agate came?   _ She _ was paying attention.  I was a nervous wreck the whole time.  I must have been a nightmare to deal with,” she added guiltily.  Her memory of that day was all built around the picture of herself as put-upon, the only one who cared about  _ standards,  _ surrounded by incompetents and only just getting them to pass muster.  She had to see that as false now and it made her feel very strange.

“Yeah, you were heinous,” said Jay.  “Jeez, I’d almost forgotten about that.”

“I can’t rid myself of the feeling it’s going to happen again,” Holly said.  “I know there’s no good reason why it should, when it hasn’t for so long, but I keep feeling as if we’re all living suspended over a drop and our rope could break at any time.”

“Well, when you don’t know when something might happen, you just have to try to be prepared for whenever it does.  What could we do to give you some confidence that we’re prepared?  That even if the bitchiest Agate of them all kicks in the airlock door tomorrow, she’d have to go home pissed off that she couldn’t find fault with a single thing in our operation?”

“I just don’t know.”

“What if we run drills?  Like simulations?  So you’ll know exactly what we’ll do if we ever have to.  If you’ve seen it for yourself, do you think that’d make you less worried?”

“Isn’t  _ that _ an imposition?  A waste of everyone’s time?”

“Oh, phooey.  We’ll ask them what they think.  It’s the same old same old most of the time.  We like a different challenge.”  Jay brushed Holly’s tear-stained cheek with her thumb.  “You wash your face and tidy up your hair, and I’ll come with you to talk to Kay, and then to the others.  I think this is gonna go better than you think.”  

“Can I be hugged for a little bit longer first?” Holly asked.  Jay pulled her in again and kissed her on the cheek, and she sank into her comforting warmth.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd be able to get some more of this out if I had a few days' peace without having to work, and finally I did.   
> I'm glad I've got this story moving again, but I do want to apologise to people hoping for an update to Petting Zoo. That one is proving harder to move along.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had to post this from my phone - I won’t have access to my laptop for a couple of days and after finally getting this to a point where I felt I’d completed a chapter’s worth I didn’t want to wait longer. This may mean my proofreading has slipped in quality a bit, so please bear with any oddities you may find in the text (I’ve tried to be vigilant about swapping the names Jay and Kay but something may have slipped through my net). I also lost all the formatting of things like italics when I copied and pasted the text and it’s too freaking difficult to correct that in the AO3 rich text editor on a little phone screen, so I’ll just sort that out when I can. With those disclaimers, I hope you enjoy it!  
> (ETA: I've redone it, so if there are any remaining weird typos or places where I swapped characters' names please let me know.)

The mood in the dormitory was not the best it had ever been.  Despite having the run of the station in their downtime now, a lot of the Quartzes still returned to their cubbies when they felt low.  It was the next best thing to being able to curl up back in your own hole.  Kay was sitting in her cubby sideways, her back against one wall and her feet propped up against the other, drawing on a tablet on her knees and not satisfied with anything she drew.  There was a time when she would have filled the screen with angry venting scribbles of Holly and would have felt much better, but everything had changed.  She felt hurt, and angry with Holly for hurting her, and angry with herself for being  _ able  _ to be hurt by Holly.  At the same time she felt like a little bit of a jerk, because even if it was completely unreasonable and mean to react like that to a joke, it had been  _ her _ joke and she hadn’t had the tact or perception to realise it was going to bomb like that.  

Holly must still be hung up on Blue Diamond and all that courtly crap.  And she knew enough to realise that.  They’d talked about it alone together.  She wasn’t even sure if Holly had shared that story about Star Sapphire with anyone else, though it was reasonable to think Jay knew it all.  Maybe Sharky too.  It had still made her feel special to think she knew something of Holly’s life that not everyone knew, that Holly had confided in her and wanted her to understand something so weird about her past, and surely being on the inside like that meant she  _ should _ have realised a joke about Blue Diamond seeing what she’d been up to would sting.

_ She _ had a good reason to feel bad, but Chip didn’t and it was getting on Kay’s nerves a bit.  She was huddled up in her cubby down a row and a few columns over, moaning disconsolately, because she’d decided it was all her fault that she hadn’t known Holly was unhappy and it was selfish that she hadn’t picked up on it intuitively and comforted Holly and made everything all right.  The opposite end of that scale was Sharky, who was prowling around the floor like a caged animal, her hair bristling and her eyes blazing, rumbling a low, angry, incomprehensible monologue that sometimes rose to sufficient volume to make out phrases like “the fuck is she thinking?” and “could’ve told me!” and “I’m  _ easy _ to talk to!”

Kay slammed down her stylus.  “Can you go and do that somewhere else?” she demanded.

Sharky swung her head up to glare at her reproachfully.  “And leave Chippy alone?”

“She must feel so alooooone!” Chip wailed.

“Well, she’s not!” Sharky snapped.  “She’s got all of us and she should’ve  _ said _ something before now.  She’s got me!  I tell her all my weird shit!  I expect to hear weird shit in return!”  She kicked the wall.  

“Can you  _ not? _  We have a door, you don’t need to make another hole.”  Kay cleared her screen with a swipe and started drawing a caricature of Sharky bristling like a… what was that creature they’d seen once on Earth?  It was covered in a mane of spines.  Exes had thought it was cute and tried to pick it up and got her hands and arms stuck full of them.  Porpentine?  It could be in the library.  

“I should have understood…” Chip moaned.  

“Why?  Even Jay didn’t see this coming and she’s always the one who gets Holly even when she’s being ridiculous.”  Sharky stomped over and sat on the floor, leaning her back against the wall of cubbies near Chip.  “Hope Jay’s talking some sense into her.  I’d try to shake it into her.”  She reached backward and up and took hold of Chip’s foot, dangling over the edge of her cubby, and gave it a squeeze.  “Don’t be so rough on yourself.  It’s not your fault Holly’s so high-strung.  I think that crack they grew her in had something weird about it.  It was stagnant or something.  Not like our Kindergarten, all full of fresh spicy Earth juice.”

“What are you even talking about?” Kay grumbled.  “Are you a licensed Kindergartener now?  You know all about it?”

“Don’t be rude about Mama’s crack,” Chip said at the same time.

Before Sharky could respond to either remark, the door slid open and Jay came through, leading Holly by the hand.  Kay sat up straighter and then deliberately slumped again.  She was still feeling too hurt to show how her hopes had lifted seeing Holly come back.  Holly looked contrite bordering on wretched.  Her face was puffy and her eyelids were swollen and shiny.  Holly would probably never be good at hiding her feelings; even if she managed to make her features behave, her skin would try to tell the truth.

“Go on,” said Jay, giving Holly a little nudge forward.  “It’ll be okay.”

Holly looked back at Jay with evident reluctance, but let go her hand and crossed the room to the wall of cubbies.  She looked up at Kay’s, clasping her hands together under her bust, not quite a begging gesture but a very earnest one.  Her voice sounded huskier than usual when she spoke, as if her throat were sore.  “Kay, I’ve come to apologise.  I’m so sorry for the way I behaved.  I’m going to apologise to everyone for the… outburst but I wanted to speak to you first.  I just —”  She took a deep, sharp breath, more of a sniff, and went on quickly, “You’re very important to me and I just hope I haven’t ruined things between us with the hurtful things I said.”

Kay drummed briefly against the edge of her drawing tablet with her stylus.  She wasn’t sure she felt better, but it was pretty clear that Holly felt awful.  “Still think I’m a stupid creature?” she asked.

“No,” said Holly, with urgency.  “No, I don’t think that at all, I was just — I was overwrought and I — I have no excuse.  I shouldn’t have bottled up my fears, I should have confided in someone, I understand that now, because when I didn’t I… I just became unreasonable and… I’m so sorry, Kay.”

“I think what’s really bugging me about this,” said Kay, “apart from you yelling at me, is that you don’t seem to think we  _ understand _ it would be bad if the authorities found out what’s going on here or that we’re capable of  _ hiding _ what’s going on here so they don’t.  Not just me, do you really think all of us are that dumb?”

Holly took a deep breath.  “I thought you just didn’t think about it.  That you all just embrace the present and how much you can enjoy it and never worry about the future.  Whereas I worry about the future a lot.  I think I was stuck in a bad old habit of thinking only I care about the things I care about, without really realising it.  I had to think again about how I used to think of you in the bad old days and it was uncomfortable to see the same pattern even when I love you now.”

“Oh,” said Kay, a little surprised.  Actually, that made a lot more sense than her muddled conjectures.  “Like those rants you used to go on about how only you had any standards and you had no one you could rely on and we had no idea what it was like to be entrusted with such a weighty responsibility and get no  _ help?” _

Holly winced.  “That… that’s it.  I was so used to thinking of myself as beleaguered and alone, and I  _ know _ I was wrong now, but it seems as if it left a trace… or something… I don’t know, I’m still so muddled about it.”  She rubbed at her eyes with one hand and then shifted both arms to hug her own waist, her head hanging forward.  She certainly  _ looked  _ beleaguered and alone.  Chip was trying to rush over to her but Sharky kept blocking her, and being blocked by Sharky was more or less like having a cliff rise up in front of you.  Kay could hear her protesting and Sharky growling back, “Let them settle this, then you,” both in an undertone.  

Kay set aside her tablet and stylus and vaulted down from her cubby, landing just in front of Holly.  “I guess the question is,” she said, straightening up from her landing crouch, “can you get it into your head that you  _ have _ got help and if you just  _ tell us _ what you’re worried about you might just find we’ve thought about it too and we’ve got it covered?”

“Yes,” Holly said in a small voice.  “I mean I’m trying to.  I really, really don’t want to hurt anyone else because I’m not coping.  I won’t ask you to forgive me, but can you let me try again to — to be someone you can trust?”

“Nah,” said Kay, “I think I’m just gonna forgive you anyway.”  She leaned forward and hugged Holly, feeling a rush of relief.  There was still a bruised corner of her mind indignant that she would forgive someone who’d talked to her that way, but all the rest of her wanted to feel Holly’s warm, strong body against hers again and feel safe.  Holly was still for a moment and then hugged back, throwing her arms around Kay’s waist and pulling her tight against her, muffling a sob against her shoulder.  A fraction of a second later they were both hit from the side by Chip, who must have finally been released by Sharky; she wrapped her arms around them both and clung like a limpet, kissing Holly’s cheek.  

“I’m getting in on this too,” Jay said, and joined the hug on the other side.  

“Then I am too,” said Sharky, pressing in behind Holly.  They all squeezed together for a long, quiet moment.  Kay felt Holly’s breasts and tummy softly rising and falling with her breathing against her own, and felt a little downward tug of desire low in her belly.  It seemed just a little bit inappropriate after such a heavy conversation to ask Holly if she wanted to fuck, but on the other hand it would certainly reinforce the strained bond between them.  She tried to think of a good way to segue into that subject.   _ So, make-up sex, how about it?   _

“I bet Chippy has a boner right now,” Sharky rumbled.  Jay gave a sputter and fizzle of surprised laughter and Chip whined in embarrassed protest.  

“She has a lovely hard, proud erection and I’m always thrilled to feel it,” Holly said, a bit muffled in the middle of four large bodies.

“Shit, really?  I was just teasing.  You’re a beast, Chip,” Sharky said with evident admiration.

“I can’t help it,” Chip said sheepishly.  “It’s Holly.”

“It’s Holly,” Jay repeated, and kissed Holly’s neck.  

“Don’t, darling, your mouth,” Holly said fretfully.  

“It doesn’t really hurt any more.  I’m a fast healer,” Jay said.  

“You’re okay about that?” Kay asked her.  She’d been forgetting Jay got that slap, focused on how hurt and steamed  _ she _ was, and she felt bad about that too.  None of them were wimps about physical stuff and they had all been hurt a lot worse than a fat lip well before Holly came their way, but that didn’t mean it didn’t matter.

“Yeah, we talked it over.  Look, she was panicking, she felt someone grab onto her from behind and she threw her hand back.  Closer to an accident than an attack.  It might not have happened if I’d come round where she could see me before I put my hand on her.”

“That doesn’t make it your fault,” Holly said quickly.  

“I know, but  _ usually _ if I was trying to calm someone down who was having a meltdown I wouldn’t do it that way.  Honest mistake, that’s all I’m saying.  The point is I’m okay and it’s okay, okay?”  She kissed Holly again to underline her point, on the soft side of her neck just above the love-bite that had caused all this trouble, and Kay took the opportunity at the same time to kiss her mouth, feeling her plush lips tremble and yield.  She also felt Holly’s hips lift and roll against hers, although judging by the soft grunt and slow, hissing breath from Sharky that was more her doing, grinding against Holly’s ass from behind.  Holly gasped as Sharky ran her tongue up over her gemstone, and Kay felt a hand that must be Chip’s push between their bellies and slide down to cup Holly’s mound.

“Cheeky,” Holly sighed.  “Actually  _ two _ of you are cheeky.”

“I love you, Mama,” Chip breathed.  “I’m so sorry I didn’t understand what you were going through.”

“That’s hardly your fault, lovey, I hid it from you.  I’m sorry  _ I _ didn’t explain.”

“We all learned many life lessons,” said Sharky.

“What did  _ you _ learn?” Jay asked, chuckling.  

“To let good ol’ Jay deal with the weird conversations and sneak in on the group hugs afterward.”  Sharky leaned over and kissed Jay on the cheek and followed up with a charming smile.  She was still rocking against Holly, whose face was getting increasingly flushed, her eyes growing hazy as Chip gently rubbed between her thighs.

“Is that good?” Kay asked, brushing Holly’s lips with hers again.  “Like what they’re doing?”  Holly hummed faintly in reply and leaned into the kiss, slipping her tongue into Kay’s mouth.  They lingered over it for several long, sweet moments, and Kay felt Holly’s hands slip down from her waist to grasp and massage her buttocks.  Soft moans were rising in Holly’s throat and she was beginning to rock her hips more insistently.  

“Imagine if we could all fuck her four ways,” Sharky said.  

_ “Don’t imagine that,” _ Holly said, snapping out of her dreamy state to speak quite curtly, and Sharky snickered against her nape.  “A double is as much as I’m prepared to take.  Four?  Seriously?   The angles alone boggle my mind.”

“Where would her legs go?” Chip objected.  

“Up,” Sharky said, shrugging.

“See, I think with a double it feels really special ‘cuz you’re not only sharing something with Holly, you’re sharing  _ her _ with the other person.  You cram more dicks in and it just loses that sweet  _ intimacy,” _ Jay said.

“Thank you Jay, the voice of reason as always,” said Holly.  “Oh… oh, I want to be just a touch more comfortable…”

“Oh, with deep double dick,” Sharky said.  “Got it.”

“I mean I’d like to lie down, Cheeky,” Holly said.  “Although depending on  _ how _ comfortable I get, deep double dick could be an option.”  She gave a little squeak and began to giggle breathlessly as Sharky wrapped her arms round her waist and hoisted her off her feet.

“I know where to put  _ you,” _ Sharky said.  Over time a lot of the cushions from the observation lounge had migrated into the dorm and accumulated in a drift in one corner that was euphemistically called the cuddle pile.  Cubby-based fucking held only nostalgic appeal now that they had so many more options.  Sharky swooped Holly up in her arms, twirled her round, strode over to the pile and dropped her in the middle of it before dropping herself on top of her with a growl.  Holly gave a delighted shriek that was smothered by a deep kiss, and wrapped her white-booted legs around Sharky’s hips.

“Stop thief!” shouted Jay, pouncing on Sharky’s back.  

“Holly theft is a worse crime than Holly hogging,” Kay agreed, piling on and grabbing a fistful of Sharky’s hair to pull her back, Jay still clinging to her waist.  

“Ow ow ow ow!” Sharky exclaimed, rearing up off Holly.  “No fair!”

“But you  _ like _ hair-pulling,” Kay said sweetly.  

“Not  _ my _ hair!  Gah!”

“Admit your party foul and we’ll let you go,” said Jay.  “Deny it and I’ll tickle you.  You know where.”  She drummed her fingers against Sharky’s belly.

“I’ll never admit  _ anything!”  _ Sharky snarled, arching back.

“Psst, Chippy, get in there,” Kay stage-whispered.

“Really?” Chip asked eagerly.  “But don’t you wanna go first?” she asked with a dutiful but clearly reluctant attempt at good manners.  “She came to make up with  _ you.”   _

“Go halfsies with ya,” Kay proposed.  She wiggled round Sharky, who was getting wrestled over backwards by Jay and roaring about it, and flopped down beside Holly, where she was met with an eager kiss.  The little still-hurt part of her harrumphed that she could be anyone right now, that when Holly was horny she loved whoever kissed her, but when she drew back she could see bright little tears shining in Holly’s eyes and she whispered “My Kay” and sounded so  _ thankful _ that even the stubborn still-hurt bit melted a little.  On Holly’s other side, Chip was lifting her top and kissing her breasts; Holly spared a hand to stroke her hair as she kissed Kay, her mouth soft and yielding.  The other arm wrapped around Kay’s waist, pulling her close, and Holly moaned as Kay pushed her fingers between her thighs, massaging her plump mound through her pants.  

“Oh, my darling, my darling, yes…”   Holly twisted towards her, wrapping both arms around her, lightly sucking at her lips.  Behind her, Chip shifted to kiss the nape of Holly’s neck, nuzzling at her teardrop gem, rubbing firmly against her bottom.  Between them they tugged her pants down from her hips, though they were dissolving as they went; Holly still liked to fuck with her boots on so those never went away.  “Let me see,” Holly breathed.  “Where should I touch my beautiful Kay?”  She slid her hands over Kay’s shoulders and down to cup and squeeze her breasts, pressing a kiss into her v-neck between them, and Kay felt her snuffle with laughter against her skin.

“What?”

“I just remembered how  _ shocked _ and  _ appalled _ I was that time I ran into you with Ellie in the corridor, and she was kissing your breasts.”  Holly looked up at her, her eyes dancing, and the fact that Chip was just behind her panting and humping didn’t matter; it made Kay feel that Holly was there just for her.  

“Hah!  You were so  _ offended.   _ Was that just ‘cuz I had my tits out, or was it the raspberries?”

“Well, it was all shocking, but the raspberries were  _ most uncouth.”   _ Holly, with imperfect but enthusiastic technique, blew a small one in the notch of the vee and made Kay squirm and giggle.  She slid Kay’s straps down from her shoulders, freeing her breasts and nuzzling at them, turning to left and right to softly lick her nipples and suck them into tingling stiffness.  Because she wasn’t above a little smugness, Kay glanced over to see how Sharky was taking this.  She didn’t look too upset about it; Jay had her in some kind of a wrestling hold on all fours and was holding her back but had one hand under her belly rubbing her cock.  She was whispering to Sharky with a little smile on her face and Kay could hear Sharky growling low in her throat.  She could have thrown Jay off any time if she had really wanted to.  

“That’s so good, Holly,” Kay murmured, “you’re such a good girl.  Want me to fuck you?”

“Mmmh!”  Holly’s eyes turned pleading although her mouth stayed busy, sucking and pulling.  

“Mama,” Chip whimpered, “can I put it in?  Please can I put it in your ass?”

“I think she says yes,” Kay said.  “Holly-dolly, you want to show Chippy if she can put it in your ass?”

Holly grunted assent and reached one hand back to part her buttocks; a moment later Chip pushed into her with a joyful little gasp and Holly’s eyes popped wide.  Her deep throaty moan was muffled by Kay’s breast, and then her eyes rolled up as the lids fluttered closed and her body began to rock in time with Chip’s thrusting.  

“You love that, don’t you?  Oh, yes you do.  Ass full and pumping.  Your pussy’s gonna feel  _ so _ tight.  Here we go, here we go, nice and easy, let’s just lift your leg up here.  Holls, let go, babe, I wanna look,” she added, giggling.  Holly released her breast and let her scoot down to gaze between her thighs.  “See,” Kay said, “I want to  _ fuck _ this but I also want to  _ draw _ this so I need a really good look.”

“You’re going to draw what?” Holly asked, spreading her legs wider.  

“I’m going to draw how your pussy looks so cute and pouty and puffy while your ass is stretched wide open round Chip’s dick.  And you’re so  _ wet. _  Everything’s shiny and slick.  The rim of your asshole is pulling out and pushing in and shining and hey, Chippy’s getting all shiny too.  That must feel so good — think she’ll come soon?”  Chip’s cock looked as hard as hers felt — maybe more, with that twitching pulse at its base.  

“She’s just started, and she’s been practising so diligently to build her stamina,” Holly panted as Kay ran her fingertips around the borders of her flaring lips and pressed them outward.  “E-every day she practises fucking me front and back until I’m  _ fully _ satisfied.”  She gasped softly as Kay slid two fingers into her pussy, probing into the deep wet heat, flickering them back and forth against the silky elasticity of her cunt walls, finding and stroking the sliding bulge in the back that was Chip’s delving cock.  “Please don’t tease,” Holly sighed. 

“Is this teasing?” Kay asked innocently, sliding her fingers round to massage the sweet spot in the front wall of Holly’s cunt.  Holly grunted and tightened her grip, drawing a moan from Chip as well.  “That’s not teasing, is it, Holly-puss?  That’s just making you feel nice.  That’s just making your pussy twitch and leak and I bet if I rub it just right we can get a little squirt out of you.”

“That’s embarrassing,” Holly moaned, squeezing and holding her fingers, her thighs quivering.  

“Maybe a big squirt.  Maybe you won’t be able to hold it in.  Maybe you’ll come all over my hand and soak the cushions and — ooh!  There goes a little bit.  C’mon, Holly, I know you’ve got more than that in you.  Let’s really milk it out of you.  When I rub, you squeeze.  Pee if you want to, I don’t mind.”

Holly gasped and a little gush of clear hot liquid spurted into Kay’s palm.  

“Did Mama  _ pee?”  _ Chip asked breathlessly.  

“Nah, the title of first to make Holly piss herself is still up for grabs.  This is just cum.  Aw, I shouldn’t say  _ just  _ cum like that, should I, Holls?  Like it’s nothing special?  Holly cum is always special.  Holly cum is the magic fountain, right?”  She slipped in her third finger and then the fourth, finding it easy.  

“You’re being highly silly,” Holly panted, working her hips frantically against Kay’s hand, her rapid, husky moans building up to a sharp cry.  “Oh stars!”  Kay felt her pussy spasm and the stream of hot glistening juice that burst out in time with the spasms drilled into her palm and splashed lavishly, back over Holly’s straining cunt and crammed anus, soaking and beading her tangled curly hair, saturating the silky cushion under her plump hip.  Her whole body quivered with joy and relief and, if Kay was any judge, that delicious kind of dirty embarrassment that drove all the most desperately slutty Holly displays.  You could stop here and let her relax or you could urge her on and make her break.  

“Oh my  _ goodness,”  _ Kay said, “Holly came all  _ over _ herself!  Just look at this mess.  Can you hear your greedy cunt slurping and sucking on my fingers?”

“Yes,” Holly whined.  “Oh please — please…”

“Say the word, Mama, you know we’ll do anything to fuck you like you need.”

“Fuck me, fuck me both, I want both of you in my cunt together, jam your cocks in and — and — please!”

That was a little bit of a surprise — Kay had heard Sharky bragging about the great double fuck but would have suspected it was just a brag without Jay’s laughing confirmation.  Holly’s cunt was deep and soft, but it was still tight as a bolt stretched around her knuckles and she would have to want it like nothing else to stuff two cocks in there.  She felt a burning rush of excitement.  

“If that’s what you want,” Kay said, “that’s what you’ll get.  Chippy, can you stand to pull out of her ass long enough to shove your dick into this sloppy cunt?”

Chip groaned and obliged, pushing her cock in deep with one eager stroke.  Holly shuddered and thrust her hips back, trying to fill herself even more deeply.  

“Okay, I’m coming in.  You need to slow down or stop, yell out.  Open wide.  Let’s see what you can take.”  She had thought briefly about shifting her cock down to something slimmer, but unless her usual really wouldn’t fit that seemed like short-changing Holly.  She pushed against Chip’s shaft, nudging it down, found just a little space to nestle her cockhead in and bore down on it, feeling Holly tensing and releasing and quivering as the mouth of her cunt gave way enough for Kay to slip in, pressed hard against Chip’s cock, the two shafts belly to belly and just able to slide against one another because of the slick film of Holly’s cream between them.  

Holly was breathing hard in little squeaky pants and her face was scrunched up with effort but it was clearing and changing to a look of utter pride.  “See,” she managed to say, “you see what I can do when I try?”

“Do we feel good inside you, Mama?” Chip asked.  She had wrapped her arms tight around Holly’s body and was squeezing her breasts with both hands.

“So good, my darling, you make me so proud.  I want — I want you to take turns — in and out — want to feel you sliding over each other…”  Her eyes rolled up again as she felt them stroking in and out, and her squeaky panting slid down scale to a deep ecstatic groan, mixing with their deep rough breathing and Sharky’s rumbling, surging growl and Jay’s murmurs of praise and admiration, the soft slapping and thumping of their hips against her thighs and bottom and the luscious smacking of her drenched cunt around two churning shafts.  Kay was feeling something close to awe for how Holly held them both, and the pleasure building down low in her belly and groin was turning molten hot.  She felt Chip’s cock surge against hers and everything got dramatically wetter as she came, clutching at Holly’s breasts and gasping.  

“C’mon,” said Sharky, “you’ve had your turn, you’ve had  _ two _ turns, let someone else fuck her.”  Chip shook her head and clung to Holly a few moments more, fervently kissing her neck, before releasing her hold and rolling away to rest on her belly.  Sharky scrambled into the warm dent in the cushions she had vacated and grasped Holly’s thigh, lifting it high.  “Here it comes,” she purred, and thrust into Holly’s wet, creamy depths, stretching her tight again and almost forcing Kay out before she pushed back.  

“Oh yes,” Holly gasped, “oh yes, you see?  I can take you all, I can take  _ anything.” _

“Best Agate,” Sharky rumbled.  “You know, if we all rolled over, got Kay on her back, and I  _ leaned  _ back and Jay climbed in right, I bet she could fill your asshole too.  You want a triple like that?”

“You wanna try, Holly?” Kay asked, breathlessly, pounding into her.  The  _ thought  _ of it was a little too hot; before Holly could answer she realised she was cresting and she gave in to the overwhelming pleasure, grabbing Holly’s buttocks and holding her pressed as tightly up to her as possible, coming in pulse after pulse, her body tense and arched until she reached the point of perfect release and sank into limp bliss, rocked back and forth by Sharky’s relentless thrusting.  

“Well, she can’t  _ now,”  _ Sharky grunted, “unless we call for reinforcements.”

“Just let me in,” Jay urged, tugging at Kay’s arm, “let me fuck her too, I want her pussy, not her ass.”

“Be my guest,” Sharky said, “but it’s messy in here.”  Spurts of frothy cum were escaping around her thick dark shaft with each inward thrust, and she was forcing Kay’s softening cock out now in no uncertain terms.  

“Be  _ my _ guest,” Holly said, “give me more, fuck me full, oh Jay, my darling, come here!”  She kissed Kay one more time, sweet and deep, before not  _ quite  _ shoving her away in her eagerness to be stuffed again.  Kay rolled back, laughing helplessly in her euphoria; she couldn’t be mad at Holly now and only felt a kind of baffled love for what an insatiable slut she was.  It wasn’t quite a slap on the ass and “Next!” but it was close to it.  Kay lay with her head pillowed on one arm watching the three of them, admiring the powerful curves of Jay’s back and rump, watching how Holly’s hands twisted white-knuckled in her curling hair and hearing her voice soar joyfully.  

Somehow, with all that noise and motion going on just beside her, Chip had managed to fall asleep and was snoring softly.  That would be a nice detail to include; she was thinking about a big painting  full of rich colours and textures with Holly getting well fucked at the centre but others lying around looking on or amusing themselves in their own ways.  It would be a nice way to express her affection to the whole lot of them, she thought.  But the central focus had to be Holly, with her hair unraveling around her shoulders and her breasts heaving and her face ecstatic, just like now.  Kay watched contentedly as Jay and Sharky fucked her to shuddering orgasm, reached their own delicious climaxes and settled in an exhausted, sweaty, panting tangle.  

“Holy shit,” Sharky murmured.  “That was great.  I’m not saying you should freak out just for the make-up sex, Holly…”  She yelped as Holly reached back and lightly pinched her.  “Okay, deserved that.  But fuck, that felt good.  You’ve really warmed up to this.  First time was a lot harder, right?”

“Mmm…” Holly said faintly, her eyes nearly closed.   “I just had to feel  _ how _ to do it once.  That, and Kay made it so easy with the way she worked my pussy.   That kind of deep-inside massage…”

“You can have that any time you want it,” Jay said, nuzzling Holly’s cheek, “so don’t forget to ask.”

“I was thinking a public display,” Kay said, scootching up behind Jay to wrap her arms around her.  “Seeing Holly get deep-fisted would really inspire the troops.  You know, look what she can do!  Imagine what you can do if you believe in yourself or some shit.”

Holly started to giggle.  “Yes, that’s the secret, being too aroused to think it might be a silly idea,  _ copious  _ lubrication, and  _ believing  _ in yourself.”

“I think you should show them your new trick with the balls,” Jay said.  “We made these kinda soft, heavy ball things with a hard core, and we stuff them inside her till she can’t hold any more, and then she has to push them out.  Her pussy’s so strong!  Makes me proud every time.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready to show  _ that  _ to everyone,” Holly demurred, but added, “What we did just now, that should all be recorded on the feed, right?”

“Yeah,” said Jay.  “Can’t answer for the shot angles but you’re definitely on record taking us two at a time.”

“Oh good,” said Holly.  “Anyone who wants to view  _ that  _ is very welcome to.”

“You serious?” Kay asked.  “You’ve  _ never _ wanted us to play that stuff back or blow up stills or anything.”

“I’m just… especially proud of this,” Holly admitted.  “I’d like to show it off a little.  It feels like an achievement.”

“Well, all right Holly!  I’ll get it up on the walls in no time.”

“And a big colour portrait of her quadruple creampie,” said Sharky, snickering.  “Hmm… the sensor’s up there… so Holly, here.”  She pulled back, withdrawing her cock, and guided Holly to roll onto her back so that Jay slipped free too, then spread her legs and reached down to part her lips with her fingers.  “Push it out, Holly Blue,” she purred, and Holly blushed and half covered her face (though Kay could see her trying to make a little eye contact with the viewer at the same time, and that was new and nice) and flexed her pussy so that a thick stream of semen escaped her.  Sharky played with her lips and dabbled the cream around while Holly blushed more and wriggled her hips contentedly.  “Proud of you,” Sharky breathed.  “That’s such a good, horny girl.”

Behind her Chip woke and clambered over her, bleary-eyed and mumbling indistinctly about being left out, nestled between Holly’s thighs with her head on her breasts and promptly fell asleep again with a look of utter contentment.  Holly lay stroking her hair and gazing down at her tenderly, and Kay found herself thinking that although what Jay had said about “sweet intimacy” from double penetration had sounded corny at first, there was a lot in it.  If she’d been asked she would have said it was just good perverted fun, not the kind of thing that made you love people more, but here she was with her chest aching with how much she loved everyone, Chip cradled in Holly’s arms, Jay brushing Holly’s damp, soft hair back from her face, Sharky licking her fingers, Holly looking over to her and reaching out one hand to stroke her face.  Kay held it to her cheek, turned her head to kiss the palm, and settled into a sweet languor.  


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parts of this chapter were improvised together with [molded-from-clay](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/) who I'm sure will be glad it finally sees the light of day.   
> Content warning for this chapter: some fairly rough (not necessarily realistic, goodness knows) BDSM including flogging, verbally berating, and Sharky playing a very aggressive role. Read with care if violence distresses you, but rest assured that there is full consent and trust on both sides.

After all the explanations and apologies and make-up sex were over, the Quartzes turned practical.  They called a full staff meeting in the wardroom to discuss the situation, sitting in a big circle on the floor, though Holly was offered a chair with a cushion in deference to her notional seniority and slight soreness.  

“Although Holls was overreacting a little, it  _ is _ something we might have to deal with, and things have changed a lot around here.  I think it’d be smart for us to practise what we’ll do, just to make everything look normal and boring,” Skinny said.  

“And then we can get back to the important stuff, like watching the video of Holly getting railed in the dorm,” said Carnelian.  “You want us to see that one, right?”

“Um,” said Holly, blushing slightly.  “Yes. This time.”

“Woo! Ultimate exhibitionist Holly!” Carnelian hooted, raising both fists in the air.  “Seriously, I’m proud of you, ya big perv.” 

“I think credit has to go to Kay for getting her so comfortable posing for slutty pictures,” said Gee.

“Oh, shucks,” said Kay, sounding modest but looking smug.  

“Little bit sidetracked there, guys,” said Jay, clapping her hands to bring their attention back.

_ “I’m _ not sidetracked,” said Skinny,  _ “I’m _ being good.  I say we make a big list of everything we’ve gotta hide or fake.  Like try to look at it from an outsider’s point of view, any little things that could seem off.  Not just the obvious stuff like the porn all over the walls and the weird bulges in certain parties’ pants.”

“Good call, Skins.  We’ll get started on that.”

“The thing is,” Skinny mused, rubbing her chin, “If Blue Diamond comes, I don’t think we’ll have to work that hard.  She doesn’t notice us much. Sorry, Holls,” she added offhandedly. “The tough thing would be if we  _ did _ get another inspection, but our secret weapon there is, we got Holly on our team now.  She knows how to think like an Agate.”

“Not a really tough one, though,” Exes objected.  “Sorry, Holls.”

“No need, it’s only the truth.  I was never truly ruthless,” Holly said, shrugging.  

“And that’s how you could change to be as nice as you are now,” Chip said loyally.  She reached up from her seat on the floor and patted Holly’s knee, and Holly combed her fingers through her hair.

“I guess we have to think,” said Jay, “what if they send us another stickler like Laguna Agate?  Or a psycho like Shadow Agate.” The other Primes were visibly discomfited by the name. 

“Or like that Honey Yellow horror who beat on our Mountain,” said Kitty.  There was an unhappy murmur from the Betas. 

“Even if Holly’s not as mean as they are, she’ll still know what they’d be looking for,” said Skinny.  “So she can do another list, and this time we’ll nail everything on it.  _ All _ the little picky-picky Agate things.”

“Oh!  Oh!” Sharky flung her hand up, then rushed on anyway.  “We gotta run real drills, right? Not just make lists and plans, practise everything.”

“Yeah, of course,” said Jay.  “Drills are skills. If we’ve practised we can do it without hesitation.”

“I volunteer to play the Agate!” Sharky cried, bouncing on her knees.  “C’mon! I’m a great actor! I totally tricked lil’ Steven Quartz and Ga-Reg!  They were shitting themselves!”

“Yeah, amazing how they bought your big mean thug routine,” said Skinny dryly, stretching out one long leg to poke her with her toe.  

“You think that’s all I can do?  Lemme loose. C’mon, Holly, pleeeeease?”  Sharky clasped her massive hands together, grinning brightly.

“Why is it up to me?” Holly asked, amused.  She realised she’d developed quite a deep soft spot for Sharky being bouncy and beaming.  “Are you putting me in charge again?”

“It’s gotta look like you’re in charge if anyone comes looking,” said Sharky, shrugging.  “Just practisin’.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be smiling at your Agate like that, Cheeky.  Cultivate an expression of utmost respect with a touch of fear.”

“Like this?” Gee asked, leaning in with a salute, her eyes wide and lips pinched.  

“Mmm… that’s good but a little  _ too _ fearful, unless I’m actively disciplining you.  Keep the utmost respect right where it is and dial the fear down a bit,” Holly suggested.  “There! Just right. Everyone look at Gee and try to copy her.” Soon they were all practising their utmost respect faces, seeing who could pull off the snappiest salute and laughing at one another’s efforts.

“C’mon Holly,” Sharky wheedled, nudging her.  “Check out my Agate game face.” She bounced up to stand at her full height, folded her hands behind her back and completely changed her expression to a withering, stony glare.

“Yikes,” said Holly, with feeling.  “Did I look at you like that?”

“No,” said Sharky, her face relaxing.  “It’s hard to explain. You were  _ trying _ to, but you were scared of us and mad at us, and we could see that.  Which is actually less threatening. An Agate who can look at you like that doesn’t give a damn.  You don’t make her feel anything.”

“And you’d respect  _ her, _ wouldn’t you?” Holly asked ruefully.  

“I’d have been afraid of her, I’d have hated her, and I’d have shown her what she wanted as respect to keep her off my back,” Sharky said.  “I respect you more when I’m fucking you in the ass than I ever  _ respected _ Shadow Agate.”

“I’m not  _ quite _ sure how that works.”

“Well,” said Sharky with her grin turning lascivious, “you present your luscious ass, and I —”

“No, you know what I mean, and yes, you can be the inspecting Agate.  I think you’ll be very convincing,” Holly said.

“Hot damn!”  Sharky clapped her hands.  “I’m gonna  _ terrify.” _

 

After that, she turned secretive about the whole thing.  Holly had expected her to want to plan her performance together, but other than asking for her detailed list of everything an inspecting Agate would be checking on and occasionally popping in to ask a question about something on it, she seemed to feel it was her job alone.  She participated in all the preparatory drills, Hide the Evidence, Deep Clean, Cover For Each Other (the Betas in particular enjoyed simulating mistakes and fuck-ups to challenge the Primes’ improvisational bullshit skills), and then took off to plan or rehearse or whatever by herself, hidden inside the emergency evacuation craft that would have gathered dust in a corner of the hangar if Holly hadn’t always insisted on it being dusted.  Actually, it had gathered a  _ bit _ of dust since everything changed, because of the adjustment of priorities, but as part of the Deep Clean drill they polished it bright and swept, wiped, scrubbed or buffed everything else on the station in record time.

Holly didn’t have much time to be bothered that Sharky wasn’t asking for her help because she was kept so busy directing the drills, working out how to give the impression of stern command without really hurting anybody, and absorbing the unfamiliar feeling of being extremely proud of how everyone was performing their duties — not the duties that they loved and enjoyed doing with the humans, or the duties that they would grumble about but slog through because ultimately it benefited the humans, but all the things they had never seen the point of and that had only mattered to her, like perfect posture and manners and every surface outside the habitats being able to pass the white-glove test.  

It had never been that they  _ couldn’t _ do those jobs to an excellent standard, as she’d always angrily assumed, but what she saw more and more clearly now was that it had never been fair or reasonable to expect them to work that hard and care that much about the results based on fear and punishment.  Now that she was used to the idea it seemed so  _ obvious _ that love and unity were far stronger motivators.  They were all working together to protect and keep the place where they were happy together.  For the first time she was working  _ with _ them and was part of that happiness and had made greater happiness possible.  Perhaps because of being so busy with planning and practice, she found herself unusually emotional and kept needing to step aside and fan herself because pride and love would swell up in her chest so large and warm that she almost couldn’t breathe, and she was on the verge of tears.  

She couldn’t very well expect  _ them _ to maintain posture and composure and all the rest of it if  _ she _ was weepy, so she took deep breaths and squared her shoulders and took every opportunity, since there were none in the drill scenarios for morale officer-style rewards, to whisper to them “You’re doing so well!” “Exactly as I asked,” “Excellent form,” and most of all, “You’re making me  _ very _ proud.”  It was funny but delightful to see how these big rough soldiers perked up and glowed when they heard that.

“When are we gonna see your super bitchy Agate?” Exes asked when they were all soaking in the baths.  “Feels like we’ve practised as much as we can without putting it all to the test.”

“Holly’s been a fantastic coach,” said Jay.  She leaned over to kiss Holly’s cheek; Holly, who was feeling mildly overheated but still very comfortable, wiggled her shoulders happily at the praise.  

“Oh, I’m ready any time now,” said Sharky.  “Was just waiting for you to ask.” She was resting with her elbows up on the bath rim behind her, her broad chest thrust out, displaying her strength and bulk even as she relaxed with her head tipped back and her eyes closed.

“So… we do it tomorrow?” asked Carnelian.  “After morning rounds?”

“Y’all better be ready,” said Sharky without opening her eyes.  “Purple Agate doesn’t fuck around.” 

“Purple Agate?”

“Agates can be purple.”

“What’s she like?” Vee asked, floating by on her back.

“Worse than you can imagine,” said Sharky with relish.  

 

Holly reviewed her troops, walking up and down the front row as they stood to attention, trying to keep a straight face because that would be necessary under a real inspection but longing to smile.  She could still see the flaws that any Agate would see, the irregularities of colour and form, but she defied any Agate to find fault with their posture or the keen light in their eyes, and she pitied Agates who couldn’t see how charming they were with all their irregularities.  She stopped front and centre, folded her hands behind her back, felt her chest swell with pride and had to allow herself a little smile. 

“You’re ready,” she told them.  “You’ve done everything I could ask for to prepare for this and I  _ know _ you’re going to make me proud.  Now heads up, shoulders back, minds clear, and let’s show what we can do.”  She turned to face the evac ship and stamped once sharply on the floor to signal Sharky that the inspection drill could begin.  

The doorway hissed open and Sharky stepped out.  For a moment it looked as if she’d made herself both taller and broader, but then Holly saw that she was wearing white boots with high heels, like her own but taller, the breadth of her shoulders and bulk of her body were accentuated by a cape with pointed epaulettes, and her hair had been swept up into a gleaming beehive that added about a foot to her height.  Sharky must have been paying close attention to how Holly did her own hair; she’d evidently learned a thing or two. She looked flawless, and she was glaring at them all with ferocious contempt. 

_ Oh my stars, _ Holly realised with a sinking sensation and a flush of heat,  _ she might be even hotter like this.   _ Sharky was striding over to her; she stopped with a click of her heels and pulled a crisp diamond salute that Holly hastened to mirror.  She was already messing up, she realised, she should have been the first to salute to greet the visitor, but she was so  _ flustered.   _ She took a deep breath and told herself not to let the others down

“Welcome to the Zoo, Agate,” she said firmly.  “I trust you will find everything to your satisfaction.”

“I’ll be the judge of that, Agate,” Sharky replied.  She had even changed the way she spoke; her voice was crisp and curt with none of the cheerful slanginess that all the Amethysts had.  “This is your garrison?” There was just a fraction of insulting emphasis on  _ this. _

“Earth’s best,” said Holly firmly.  

“What’s  _ left _ of Earth’s best,” said Sharky, and sucked her teeth.  “Such as it was.” She strode along the front row of Quartzes, standing to attention and staring straight ahead, at least while she was facing them; as soon as she’d walked on the Gems in her wake exchanged wide-eyed glances with lips pursed and eyebrows raised.  Some looked tempted to grin. Holly gave them a warning look as she followed Sharky. “You have a lot of off colours here,” Sharky said abruptly. “Can’t be easy.”

“Really?  I don’t find it difficult at all,” Holly said brightly.  It was bullshit but it was loyal bullshit. “They have an excellent understanding of their duties and work together efficiently,” she said more truthfully.  “Bear in mind that these Quartzes were created for Pink Diamond’s army. They were never designed for the work they now do but you’ll see how well they’ve adapted.”

Sharky — or it almost really felt like she was a different person right now, like Purple Agate was real — gave her an odd look, a sidelong glance with something grudging about it.  “Either you’re  _ really _ committed to making the best of your situation or you think I can be duped into a favourable report.  I won’t argue with what you have to do to endure this posting but don’t delude yourself about my part in this.”

“I stand by what I’ve said,” said Holly.  “Allow me to show you over the facility.” Sharky was observant and had a good memory; she was portraying that tense jostling to assert superior authority that always happened between Agates not in a direct chain of command and that Holly had almost forgotten until she saw it again.  The thing she found both interesting and surprising, now she was presented with it, was that she really wasn’t feeling any need either to assert herself over Purple Agate or to appease her. She was going to do everything necessary to pass this inspection, of course, but there wasn’t that urgent panicky  _ need _ to ensure her place in the pecking order, whether as an underling or an overling.   _ Perhaps I’m just a “ling” now.  I can look at other Agates without needing to determine which of us is superior or inferior.  I might be the only one, then. Or… or of course I only feel this way because even if she’s very convincing, I  _ know _ that’s Sharky who loves me.  Don’t get carried away, Holly Blue. _

The drill went remarkably well.  Sharky played her part to the hilt; Purple Agate was aloof, severe and demanding in the extreme.  Nevertheless, she had her work cut out for her to find any fault with the cleanliness and order of the station or the way the Quartzes performed their duties.  It was all straight backs and bright eyes and “Yes, Agate!” and “Right away, Agate!” There were a few wobbly moments, certainly. At one point Chip completely lost her place in formation because she was staring in awe at the general splendour of Sharky in thigh-high boots with six-inch heels.  Rosie, on her left, and Peek, on her right, just managed to tug her back into line before Sharky turned and saw them. Holly, sweating, took the first opportunity to pull Chip aside and out of sight while Sharky was looking over the cubbies. 

“I’m sorry,” Chip said guiltily.  “She’s just so  _ hot. _  I kind of want her to step on me.”

“Believe me, I know,” Holly said, gripping Chip’s shoulders.  “But you  _ must _ keep your composure.  I do  _ not  _ want a real inspector to see you gaping at her legs and decide to make an example of you.”

“I’ll do better, I will.  I don’t wanna let you down.”  

“You  _ aren’t _ letting me down.  I just want you  _ safe.”   _ Holly kissed Chip quickly and tried to tidy her hair a bit by hand before giving it up as constitutionally unruly and sending her back to the others with a brisk pat on her bottom.   _ I wish she hadn’t said that about stepping on her.  I won’t be able to stop thinking about it. _

It just got worse as the mock inspection went on; Sharky kept snorting and huffing in ways that made Holly imagine Purple Agate biting the nape of her neck and taking her roughly from behind, and she was so wet she was a little afraid of a visible stain on her pants.  The only thing that could successfully distract her from that was how giddily proud she was of her Gems.  _ They’re working so hard to keep our place safe — and all of this started because I was scared and worried, because they care so much about me.  I don’t know how anyone could deserve love and loyalty like that but  _ oh,  _ I’ll have to reward them  _ so much.  Of course thinking of that made her wet too, and by the time the inspection was done she was in a pitiable state, flushed and tingling, her cunt twitching and her clitoris achingly erect.  

As they walked back toward the hangar, Purple Agate glared at Holly and snapped, “I want a word with you in your office.”  That hadn’t been in any of the plans or lists, but Holly wasn’t altogether surprised when, while the door was still hissing closed, she was thrown against the wall and pinned there with Sharky’s thigh pushed between hers, rocking hard against her mound.  

“You know I can smell it on you, right?”  It was Sharky’s normal voice, husky and roughly purring.  “You’re dripping. If I’d known you’d get like this I would’ve dressed up like this a  _ long _ time ago.”

_ “I _ didn’t know I’d get like this,” Holly admitted, panting, her voice jerking a little as she rode Sharky’s thigh, glowing with relief at being able to  _ do _ something with her arousal.

“You gonna do it if we get a real inspection?  ‘Cuz I was thinking that’s  _ one _ way to get us a good report… Agate’s log, the Zoo is a weird place but the CO gives great head, ten out of ten.”

Holly gave a breathless little laugh that stopped when Sharky gripped her jaw with one hand and held her head still.  “You want to play that?” she asked

“Oh, can we?”

“I don’t think Purple Agate fucks nice, though.  She seems like the rough type. Not like  _ me.” _  Sharky looked Holly up and down.  “You want the rough stuff and dirty talk?”

“Yes please.”

“Rougher than I usually go?  Be meaner?”

“I think yes, I think that would feel more, um, in character.”

“If you’re not having fun any more, what do you say?” 

Holly rolled her eyes.  “Cerulean. I won’t forget.  I’m not  _ that _ bad at names.”

“Good girl.  Okay, we’ll go back out there and finish off.  Dismiss the troops. Then Purple Agate inspects you.”

“Back out?” Holly asked, her face falling.  “I don’t think I can.” Her hips twitched forward involuntarily; she still had that inner feeling of her pussy trying to squeeze something that wasn’t there.

“You have to,” Sharky said, grinning.  “Or no Purple Agate.”

“Oh, you just want to see me struggle and suffer.”

“Uh, yeah.  Have you  _ met _ me?”

“Everyone will know.  I’ve made a damp patch on your leg.”  She pressed down firmly to make sure of it, feeling her wet lips squish.

“Yeah, Purple Agate doesn’t care.  In fact, Purple Agate  _ wants _ everyone to know.  You passed muster, soldiers, now I’m going to fuck your little mama here so don’t disturb.”

Holly moaned, yielding.  She let Purple Agate grasp the nape of her neck and march her down to the hangar, where the garrison had formed up, standing to attention, looking a little uncertain because of the change from the rehearsed routine — but adapting to it without getting slack, Holly thought with pride.  Sharky swept her thumb over the base of Holly’s gemstone and her legs almost buckled. That got her a brisk little shake, and she tried to remember what in heavens she was supposed to say now. 

“W-well done,” she said, and cleared her throat when she heard how throaty she sounded.  “We’ve passed inspection. Return to your regular duties and I — I’ll have a final discussion with Purple Agate before she leaves.  Just Agate business.” Their faces were a picture; she would have to talk to them later about not reacting so openly to anything they thought was funny.  Still, in a real inspection it was unlikely anything  _ would _ be funny, and she couldn’t really focus on it in this state.  Why weren’t they going yet? “Oh! Dismissed.”

They all clattered out, with a few backward glances at her standing helplessly, squirming slightly, at Purple Agate’s side. Sharky snorted contemptuously.  “You have your work cut out for you.” She turned, pulling Holly by the scruff, and marched her ahead of her back to her room. 

“They’ve done their best,” Holly said as the door closed behind them, “and I take full responsibility for any failings.”

Sharky gave her a little shove and she staggered forward, feeling the air cool on her neck where it had been sweating under Sharky’s large hand.  “They were just adequate,” she said. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that red off-colour fuck-up.  _ You _ haven’t passed inspection yet.”  She swaggered past Holly, stripping off her long white gloves, and turned to stare at her with arms folded over her chest.  “I’m wondering if you’re off colour yourself. Strip. Now.”

Holly bit her lip, feeling shameful pleasure and submission well up like a hot dark liquid in her lower belly.  With trembling hands she took off her capelet and dropped it. Next had to be her boots. She was going to have to stand barefoot in front of Sharky in spike heels.  She stepped out of them, wobbling as she had to balance on one foot at a time, and pushed them aside. She peeled off her top, clinging to her back where she had dampened it with nervous, excitable sweat, and wriggled out of her pants.  She had kept her eyes down while she undressed, because losing her balance and falling on her face wasn’t the kind of humiliation she would get off on, but once she was naked she raised her gaze as she saluted. Purple Agate’s glare made her feet creep together nervously, toes overlapping as if to comfort each other, and she had to force herself to stand properly.

Without speaking, Sharky strode around her, examining her from all angles.  The carpet on the floor muffled the sharp tap of her heels but her heavy tread was audible.  Holly held her salute as best she could, feeling dots of sweat break out on her skin, her nipples drawn tight and hard.  She heard Sharky’s breath chuff behind her and shivered, thrillingly scared.

“Pudgy,” Sharky said, “but you’re sturdy enough.”  Her hands pressed down on Holly’s shoulders. “Down on your knees.   _ That’s _ the best position for the likes of you.  Did I tell you to stop saluting?”

“No, Agate.”

Sharky’s hands tightened their grip.  “Pathetic,” she said. “Look at the state you’re in.  No wonder you can’t control  _ them _ when you can’t control yourself.  Get down.” She shoved and Holly fell forward, whipping her hands out of their salute just in time to catch herself on her palms.  Her body was flinching and prickling all over with anticipation, and she was acutely aware of her hindquarters raised in the air, on display, open and shameless.  Purple Agate surely wasn’t going to give her any kind of pleasure or relief without making her earn it through punishment, and the mixture of desire and fear she was feeling made her shiver.  She tried to keep still, fairly sure she wasn’t allowed to move without orders, but telling herself it didn’t count as  _ moving _ exactly to tilt her hips and try to make a more enticing offer.  She was startled to feel Sharky plant one foot on her right buttock and lean on it hard.  “Give me your weapon,” she snarled. 

For a moment Holly couldn’t understand her.  It had been part of the drills for the Quartzes to present their weapons for inspection, but she hadn’t expected it for herself.  It had been interesting, she’d never  _ seen _ most of their weapons, and knowing them better now she could see how well each one suited its bearer, Jay’s swift, flexible sabre, Skinny’s wicked little throwing knives, Chip’s sturdy machete, Carnelian’s oversized battleaxe and Sharky’s own weapon, a long, heavy studded bat.  But everyone knew she had a whip, Agates were always meant to have whips —  _ oh. _  If Sharky wanted to punish her, she needed  _ her _ whip.  She felt a sharp dig of Sharky’s heel and gasped, the handgrip of her whip emerging from her gemstone.  Oh, this was going to  _ hurt. _  She had a natural immunity to the electrical charge of the lash but it would still bite her skin.  She felt Sharky grip the hilt and rip it free, taking the breath out of her.  _ Do I want to say it?  I — I’ll hold it, I’ll say it if I need to but I want to feel it. _

“Now  _ this _ is nice,” said Sharky.  Holly heard a low twanging sound; she was holding the lash and pulling it tight against the handgrip.  “You’re not entirely worthless, are you? If you knew how to use this you  _ would _ be worthy of fear.   _ If.”   _ She took her foot off Holly’s backside and the next thing Holly felt was a heavy, snapping  _ slap _ across her buttocks.  She turned her head involuntarily, drawing in a gasp so sharp it whistled, and saw Sharky holding the long, thin lash gathered like a bouquet of loops, grinning down at her wickedly.  

“Stay down.  You want to take responsibility?  Take this.” She swung down her arm and Holly yelped, her head hanging and her body jerking as the blow landed.  The sting was  _ fierce _ , like a spreading splatter of pain on her broad buttocks, and Sharky inhaled and grunted and it struck her again.  She smothered a cry, clenching her teeth. As the flogging went on her voice burst out of her, hoarse and sharp, until her skin was on fire and she was almost sobbing.  At the last she felt the hard boot against her buttock again and a push that dropped her onto her belly on the floor. She lay gasping and dizzy, her head feeling as euphoric as her body felt painful.  Everything was so sensitive now; Sharky’s heavy footsteps vibrated through her as she walked around to Holly’s side, pushed her toe under her hip and flipped her over.

Sharky loomed over her, huge and dark, her face flushed and sweaty and framed by loose strands of hair slipping free of her imposing coiffure.  Without speaking, she pushed the glossy white toe of one boot between Holly’s thighs. Holly caught her breath and ground against it as Sharky pressed down on her mound, then drew her foot down and pushed the hard smooth toecap between her lips, prodding at the tender opening of her cunt.  The soft wet lapping sound as she rocked her foot was unmistakable and Holly closed her eyes, biting her lip, fighting to hold still. Then the pressure was gone, the pleasure and tension with it, and the next second Sharky lunged down and grasped the scruff of her neck and threw her over again, shoving the toe of her boot under Holly’s nose.

“Look at this mess,” she growled.  “Disgusting. What is that?” 

“Please forgive me, I couldn’t help it,” Holly faltered.  She could smell herself on the leather.

“What is it, you dirty bitch?” Sharky demanded, shaking her.  

“It’s mine, it’s my — my cunt — my cunt juice.”  

“Then clean it up, cunt.”  

Holly’s face was already hot but now it burned almost as badly as her indigo-striped buttocks.  She hesitantly licked the white leather, and the shame of it drove her on to polish it with her tongue, whimpering.  When she tried to suck Sharky said curtly, “That’s enough.” She pulled her foot back, leaving Holly panting open-mouthed.  

“My stars, you’re sloppy,” Sharky said.  “What am I going to do with you?”

“Whatever you please,” Holly managed to say.  She waited, tense with thrilling fear, the bruises and welts on her bottom throbbing and her pussy burning.  

“Get on your back,” Sharky ordered her, “and hold your knees to your shoulders.  Now!”

Holly did as she was told, gazing up with what she hoped was a timid, pleading look.

“Whoever trained you did a shitty job,” Sharky growled, crouching down just before her bottom.  “Now  _ I  _ have to drill you till you learn some  _ real _ obedience.”  She licked one thick finger and pushed it into Holly’s upturned pussy without warning, swirling it in the deep wet.  “This is what they give me to work with,” she snorted, “just a cunt. Well, you need a taste of the whip.”

For a moment Holly thought she was actually going to feel the lash on her defenceless pussy and the sense of thrilling fear leapt up to being actually scared.  “Cerulean,” she blurted out. 

Sharky’s eyes flared for just a moment and then her expression softened.  

“You okay?” she asked.  “Talk to me.” She began to draw back her finger but hesitated as she felt Holly tighten on it.  “You’re safe. We’re on time out. Take a deep breath and tell me what you want.”

“Did — did you mean…”  Holly tried again; it was  _ hard _ to make sense when she was this aroused and flustered, and to complicate matters her pussy  _ really _ did not want to let go of Sharky’s finger.  “Whip?” she asked. 

Sharky pulled her finger out and slapped the heavy grip of the whip into her palm.   _ Slap, _ and she twisted the thick handle in her fist, reminding Holly urgently of the texture of the pattern of raised bumps to aid her grip.  “Like this,” she said. 

_ “Oh!” _ Holly said, feeling stupid with relief.  “Oh,  _ that’s  _ okay!”

“You think so now,” said Sharky, grinning.  “You might think different in a minute. You want Purple Agate back now?”

“Yes.  Yes, please.”  

“Well then.”  Another slap of the grip in her palm.  “This is no more than you deserve.” She turned it in her hand and pressed the pommel between Holly’s spread lips, bearing down.  It was unyieldingly hard, without the delicate soft covering of even the stiffest cocks, and it sank into her almost without resistance.  Holly felt strong, probing pressure and gasped with a touch of pain. It didn’t seem this big when she held it in her hand but oh, she was stretched taut around it and oh,  _ stars, _ Sharky was pushing it in so deep.  “An Agate who rolls on her back and offers herself like a beast in heat.”

Holly moaned, feeling the pommel graze her G-spot and a little gush of hot liquid escaping around its shaft.  

"Did I tell you to speak?" Sharky asked, pulling it back till just the knob at the end remained inside Holly.

“N-no, my Agate,” Holly whimpered.  

"You can speak now. Tell me how this feels." She pushed the whip in, deep and hard, and Holly yelped. 

"Not bad," said Sharky judiciously, "but you'll have to do better."  She set a steady stroke, angling the shaft where she knew Holly was most sensitive, drawing moans and grunts out of her as the pressure built, her body tensing and flinching.  

"Incredible," Sharky muttered, "not a word of gratitude. I give you pleasure like this and what do I get back? Grunting like an animal."

"I'm sorry!" Holly gasped. "I — I didn't - oh, thank you, thank you!"

"A little better," Sharky said with a thin sliver of a grin. "You think you deserve this?"

"I know I don't, oh no, no I don't, I — I only deserve the whip, I deserve..."  Holly's babble faded into a deep groan as she arched involuntarily, the sharp pleasure surging almost to the tipping point.

"You're getting the whip right now, greedy bitch," Sharky said, her grin broadening. "What are you?" 

"G-greedy bitch," Holly replied eagerly.

"What else are you?" Sharky asked, pumping the whip faster.  “Speak up.” 

“Sloppy," Holly panted, struggling to remember the things Sharky had called her.  "D-dirty. Just a c-cu-aaahh!" She wailed as she came helplessly, her hips jerking and her pussy convulsing around the hard handgrip.  The shudders of burning pleasure rolled through her again and again, gradually subsiding until she lay dazed and limp as Sharky eased the stroke to a stop and drew the whip out, wiping it against Holly’s thigh before dropping it on the floor.  

“Let go your legs now.”  Her voice had softened to a rough purr.  She guided Holly’s hand and eased her legs down to lie sprawled on the floor.  Holly felt hands framing her face then, and blinked out of her daze a bit to find Sharky gazing down at her, her eyes soft lilac.  “You did good,” Sharky told her. “All done now.”

“Oh…” Holly sighed.  

“You were so brave,” Sharky murmured, kissing her forehead.  “So good. You okay?”

“Mmhmm.”

“You’re blissed out, hmm?”  Sharky unclasped her cape and wrapped it around the two of them, snuggling up alongside Holly on the floor and rolling her to spoon in her lap.

“Ow,” said Holly faintly.

“Sorry, babe, I know I beat up your ass.”

“You were so mean…”  

“Purple Agate’s a bitch, what can I say?”  Sharky pressed a very soft kiss to Holly’s gemstone.  

“Mmm… I think I could cope with that maybe… maybe once in six months.”  A small, tired smile curled the corners of Holly’s mouth. “You can drill too much, can’t you?”

“Oh yeah,” Sharky chuckled.  “Such a thing as overpreparation.”

“Did I pass my inspection, though?”

“You know what?  I think you actually impressed her.  I mean, I made her up, so I know. If there’s one thing Purple Agate respects, it’s endurance.”  Sharky was quiet for a few minutes, stroking Holly’s arm, before she said, “I’m gonna get you up on your bed now, clean you up and get you as comfortable as you can be.  ‘Cuz Purple Agate doesn’t believe in aftercare but you can bet your life Sharky does.” She rolled herself up into a crouch, scooped her arms under Holly and prepared to lift them both up.

“So she didn’t stick around and cuddle me?” Holly asked.

Sharky grunted loudly with the effort of raising both their weight.  “Nah. She just left you lying there and strode on out. She’s not one for pillow talk.  But, like I said, you impressed her. She’s in her ship now writing a good report. And she’s gonna be thinking of you when she masturbates for years.”

“Good,” said Holly.  She felt Sharky’s laughter through her chest before she carefully laid her on the bed, turning her onto her tummy.  Sharky made sure she had pillows, brought a soft damp cloth from the basin and bathed her aching bottom. “How bad does it look?” Holly murmured drowsily.

“Well, I mean  _ I _ think it looks awesome.  You’ve got big stripey bruises and weals and a lot of mottled blue around them and two or three good little lacerations.  Looks like your ass fought a war.”

“I’m so sore and I’m going to be sorer, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but we know you heal fast.  You can soak it in a nice cool bath after you take a nap.”

With her eyes slipping closed, Holly felt Sharky lying down beside her and drawing a soft blanket up over them.  “Nice nap,” she said vaguely, turning her exhausted body towards Sharky’s warmth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't fit it into the chapter because it would be such an alien reference, but the stage direction for Sharky's movement in pulling Holly's whip out should be "as if vigorously starting a lawnmower."


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think there's a new episode of some show or other coming out tomorrow so this is perhaps poor timing but here's a new chapter of this thing. This time, a soft focus on Jay and Holly because I ship them most of all.

Holly hated to be a wuss but she found she couldn’t easily bounce back from her Purple Agate adventure.  She was used to feeling intensely tired after an orgy or a particularly rough fuck but being pretty much restored by several hours’ sleep.  This time she woke up still tired, and after a bath, meant to be refreshing, during which she nearly fell asleep and sank under the water she only wanted to go back to bed.  There were some rumblings in the ranks against Sharky for wrecking her.

“Oh come on, she literally asked for it!” Sharky protested, hoisting a drowsy towel-wrapped Holly up in her arms.  “I’m not gonna make a habit of it. You know how long it takes to get my hair like that? I was back-combing for an hour.”

Although it wasn’t totally conducive to rest, in their concern, they couldn’t quite leave her alone in her bed.  They did at least agree to take turns to avoid crowding her, so for a few hours at a time she had Chip spooning her, then Kay stroking her hair, then Carnelian who seemed to be having one of her intermittent bursts of wanting Holly’s affection in particular, and curled up against her belly.  Holly drifted in and out of sleep, achy and stiff, waking enough to notice who her companion currently was and murmur thanks and then fading out again. 

When she woke a little more definitely she found that Jay was there, resting beside her with her elbow on a pillow above Holly’s head and her cheek on her hand.  She was reading something on a hand screen, and didn’t notice Holly waking, so for a minute or so Holly was able to watch her face when she thought she was unobserved.  She couldn’t decide whether Jay looked tired or if it was just that her face when she talked to other people was so bright and animated that when she was at rest the difference was striking.  Holly reached up to touch her cheek and Jay looked down at her and that lively warmth bloomed back in her eyes.

“Hey, Holly-dolly,” she said softly.  “You’ve been out a long time. Think you’re back to stay?”

“You make it sound as if I’ve been re-forming,” Holly said.  “I think so.” She yawned and stretched her legs under the blanket.  “What are you reading? Anything good?”

“Just looking over some of the stuff I want to teach the humans about Earth.  I wanna do their first lesson later today — I’m trying it out on my habitat first and see how they take to it.  I figured it’d be good to start by showing them the Earth versions of things they already know, like trees and flowers.  Hey, look at these.” She lowered the screen to show Holly. “Isn’t that beautiful?” It was a close-up picture of a flower which appeared to be a cluster of smaller flowers, in shades of soft blue and purple, with silvery drops of water scattered over their petals.

“It really is,” Holly said, surprised.

“That’s a hydrangea.  And you see this? Hibiscus.  This kind here, this was Pink Diamond’s favourite flower.”  Jay touched the screen lightly, tracing the outline of the petals, and her voice grew softer.  Holly looked up at her, hesitant. She’d never really  _ talked _ about Pink Diamond with them and she wondered sometimes whether they wanted to but just didn’t expect her to understand.  Maybe it was best to leave an encouraging silence so Jay could say something if she wanted to. She moved on in a moment, though, swiping the picture away and bringing up a new one.  “And hey, this is totally off topic but  _ this _ is a shark.”

Holly blinked.  “What a hideous creature!  It’s not a  _ bit _ like my Sharky.”  It had a pointy face and dull black eyes and a maw full of… well, the shape of the teeth was similar, she would grant that.  “It’s not smiling,” she pointed out. “It has a very sad mouth. Downturned.”

“Yeah, I guess it does,” Jay agreed.  “But just so you know! There’s kinds of animals in here I never knew about.  It makes me wonder why Pink Diamond only wanted to preserve the humans, you know?”

“Maybe they were her favourites,” Holly suggested.  “That shark certainly doesn’t awaken my protective instincts.”

“Or maybe it’s ‘cuz there  _ were _ so many different kinds.  Maybe she figured she couldn’t take care of all of them so she had to pick just one kind.  It’s a shame though, ‘cuz look.” Jay flipped up some more pictures. “They used to live together with some kinds of animals.  That’s a dog. That’s a cat on that kid’s lap. That one’s a horse. I’m not sure  _ why _ they lived together but that’s something our humans can’t have.”

“Well, it can’t be something they need, then,” Holly said.  “Everything they need to live healthy lives is on this station.  Animals must be an optional extra.” She glanced at Jay’s face again.  “You’re not worrying about it, are you?”

“Not  _ worrying,” _ Jay said, although she looked pensive.  “It just makes me realise, I feel like I know all about humans because I’ve been raising them for thousands of years, but there’s a lot I  _ don’t _ about how they used to live.  Why they used to do stuff they used to do… and  _ they _ can’t tell me because all the ones that knew have been  _ dead _ for thousands of years.  I didn’t know it was important back when I could have asked them.”

“Who says it  _ is _ important?” Holly asked.

“Well, if they did it all the time it was important to  _ them, _ right?” Jay asked plaintively.  “Maybe not something they needed to live but still something they thought was worth doing.  I’d just like to know.”

“Well… maybe someday there’ll be an opportunity to find out.”  With an effort, because it was not a prospect  _ she _ relished, Holly said, “Maybe 8XM will visit again and you can ask her about it.  Have a proper, long talk.”

“I’d love to see her again,” said Jay wistfully.  “It was such a short little time but I felt so close to her, you know?  Plus I only got to hug her and kiss her and you  _ know _ we all wanted to fuck.  Sharky was so funny, she had a  _ massive _ crush on her.  And the Betas were all like, holy shit, a Prime runt!  She’s so cute! And it just felt like, good things can happen, right?  Even after a really long time, even when there’s  _ no _ reason to think there’s still a chance, well…”  She kissed the top of Holly’s head. “Good things can happen.”

“Mmm.”  Holly wriggled her shoulders happily.  She felt almost normal again, only faintly sore about the hindquarters.  She wouldn’t want to sit still for a  _ long _ time, but she should be comfortable enough for a little while.  “Jay… could I sit in on your lesson? To learn a little bit more about Earth.  I know it’s important to you, and anyway, I like the flowers.”

“Aw, Holly!”  Jay hugged her tight.  

 

It had been a few months since Holly had last ventured into this habitat, but it looked the same to her.  It seemed as if it should have changed somehow to go with how much  _ she _ had changed.  There was the tree with the little flowers that she and Jay had shaken off rutting up against its trunk; all the little flowers were back as if nothing had happened.  Jay gave her hand a squeeze and winked at her, and Holly laughed and blushed and squeezed back. 

They made their way to a clearing where a group of humans were sitting in a circle, each one braiding the hair of the one in front of them, humming in chorus.  When they noticed Jay approaching they bounded to their feet and ran to her, hugging her around the waist and chattering to her happily. Holly tried to hang back a bit but her arms were seized and excited humans started introducing themselves to her faster than she could take in.  No one actually expected her to remember these without referring to records, did they?

“Jay, you brought your big blue mate back!” she heard one exclaim.  

“Her hair is pretty!”

“No, I like Jay’s better.”

“Jaaay is your faaaaavourite.”

“Yes!  Very!” They all laughed, including the human who was avidly hugging Jay’s arm, rubbing her cheek against it.  She had a sling on her back with a baby snoozing in it, and Holly recognised P-12. She felt a moment’s confused worry about where the other twin was — Jay always talked about both — before seeing R-6 nearby with a matching baby sling, laughing along.

“Okay, settle down now,” said Jay, grinning.  “You’re gonna knock me off my feet.”

“Noooo!  You’re big and strong!”

“Am I?” Jay asked.  “Maybe I am, let’s check.”  She hoisted both arms up and struck a pose, three or four hooting and giggling humans clutching and dangling from her biceps.  “Oh wow! I am! Thanks for reminding me.” She gently set them down. “Hey, I wanted to show you something special today. Let’s go over there where we can all sit down and I’ll explain.”

The humans all scampered to sit in a circle around Jay and Holly in the open, grassy area.  “You sit down too, babe,” said Jay, “take a load off.” The humans obligingly opened a gap in the circle for Holly to sit down in, rather gingerly because her bottom was still tender.  She felt absurd sitting in amongst such little people but they seemed perfectly happy to have her there. The one on her left scooted up closer and copied her sitting position, glancing back and forth between them to confirm they were matching.  Holly gave her, or him, she wasn’t particularly sure, an uncertain little smile and got a beaming one back.

“Okay,” said Jay, “today I’m gonna show you some magic.  I’ve got a thing that can show us pictures in the air. You can see ‘em but you can’t touch ‘em, like lights and shadows.  That’s what you’re gonna see now, so you’re not gonna be spooked, are you?”

There was an uneven chorus of “No…”

“That’s great.  Okay, look at this.”  Jay opened the palmtop screen she had held concealed in the palm of her free hand and brought up a hologram in the air above the humans’ heads, so pink and purple flower petals appeared to be floating down on them.  Several of them gasped and others gave low “ooh”s.

Gradually the petals stopped floating down, stayed still and became twinkling stars.  In the centre appeared an image of a slowly rotating planet, orbited by one moon. “You guys know what this is?” Jay asked.

“Earth!” the humans chorused.

“Exactly!  You know a lot, don’t you?  Can you remember the Little Voice story about Earth?”

They all started at once in their eagerness, their voices a little jumbled but falling into sync.  “Our home is here on the Zoo. The Zoo is in outer space. Outer space is so high and so deep and so wide no one has ever seen the top or the bottom or the sides.  Far, far away in outer space is the planet Earth, where the first humans came from. Earth was not always safe! Pink Diamond loved humans and made the Zoo so there would always be a safe place for us to live.”

Jay clapped her hands, nodding to Holly who caught on a little late and applauded politely.  “Your memories are great! I’m so glad you know that to start off with. You know how sometimes, you know  _ something, _ but then you find out  _ more?”   _ Some of them nodded slowly.  “And you realise, wow, there’s a lot more to know than I knew before?”  A smaller number nodded, more slowly. “It’s a weird feeling, isn’t it? Kind of like your head is getting bigger inside?”  Most of them looked blank now, but one or two were nodding emphatically.

“The thing is,” Jay went on, “all of you know a lot more now than you did a little while ago.  Some of it you found out all of a sudden and it was scary and confusing. I don’t want it to be like that again, but I do want to tell you some  _ more _ stuff that I think you’re ready to know now.  Wanna hear about it?”

There was a general murmur of agreement and curiosity, although some of them still looked a bit confused or apprehensive.  

“Okay!  This is really pretty cool.”  Jay touched the screen in her palm and the image of Earth faded away.  “For a long, long time humans have lived here on the Zoo station.” An image of a group of human outlines appeared.  “And Gems have lived here to take care of you.” Bigger outlines appeared grouped protectively around the humans. “Each of you have parents, and each of them had parents, and each of them, going back, and back, and back…”  Translucent images of human outlines fanned out from the solid ones at the centre of the image, receding back and back into the past. “The oldest humans who are alive now, all of this happened long, long before they were born, and before the oldest people who were alive when  _ they _ were born.”  Jay looked around at the baffled faces and smiled.  “Hey, it’s okay if all this doesn’t make sense straight away.  Just keep listening and see what you think.”

She swiped her fingers over the screen and cleared away the outlines.  “So there are no humans alive now who remember all this happening, but we Gems remember, because we’ve been here the whole time, taking care of you.  The same Gems, not parents and children.”

“Eh?”

“Huh?”

“Wha?”

“Honest!” said Jay.  “I’ve been here the whole time.  So have all my friends, including Holly.  I mean… I guess that’s not  _ exactly _ right, we weren’t here when the Zoo  _ opened, _ but a really long time.  When we came here there were still some older humans who’d been collected right from Earth.  And you want to know something you might not have known about me? I’m from Earth too!”

“But you… are  _ not _ a human, you are a Gem,” said a small, speckled, ginger-haired human, carefully.  

“That’s right.  Some Gems come from Earth just like humans!  Except I mean, of course, not  _ just _ like humans, ‘cuz Gems aren’t born from other Gems’ bodies.  I was born  _ from _ the Earth, grown in the rocks till I popped out one day like a plant popping out of the ground!  Except… I didn’t stay  _ rooted _ in the ground… so maybe I’m more like a fruit that comes off a tree… yeah, like one of those juicy purple amethyst apples you all like!  ‘Cept of course  _ those _ don’t exist on Earth.  Red apples, green apples, I think yellow apples… how’d you like them apples...”  She trailed off with an awkward laugh, realising the humans looked truly bewildered.  Her broad shoulders sagged a little.

“Why not show them that?” Holly blurted out.  They all turned to look at her in surprise. “You’ve done a good job telling them, I think you’ve explained it as well as you possibly could with what they know to begin with, but haven’t you got bogged down in explaining?  You said you wanted to show. And it’s what you’ve  _ shown _ me of Earth that’s made me interested.”

Jay blinked and then beamed at her.  “Thanks for reminding me, babe. She’s right, you know.  I wanna show you some more of what Earth was like. What we’ve got here is a copy of Earth, but it’s only a copy of some  _ bits _ of Earth.  There was so much more there than we could ever fit in the Zoo!  Take a look.”

She began flipping up pictures, hovering and turning in the air, gliding down to different humans’ eye levels.  There were mountains, waterfalls, sand dunes, forests, beaches, an astonishing variety of landscapes for just one planet.  It seemed a bit disorderly and excessive to Holly, but the humans were wide-eyed, ooh-ing and aah-ing. Did they have some kind of instinctive affinity for their homeworld?  Or were they just easily impressed by anything audiovisual? They weren’t exactly burdened by sophistication. There was quite a pretty hillside, though, with little flowers nodding in a slight breeze; there was a rather pleasing smooth rock face with a leafy vine growing across it.  

Jay was moving around the circle, crouching down to talk to various humans, trying to answer their questions by the looks of it, though it looked like quite a few got an admission that she didn’t know.  Holly was surprised Jay  _ would _ admit that, but she didn’t seem to feel any need to keep the humans in proper awe of her.  She talked to them so sweetly, with a warm smile, bobbing down to speak at their level rather than making use of her imposing height.  Holly felt a great warm swell of affection rising from her core and had to press her hand to her chest, tears prickling in the corners of her eyes.   _ My goodness, _ she thought,  _ so sentimental today.  I do love that about Jay, though, how warm and kind she is, how patient… for so long I saw no value in that sort of thing and now it feels so tremendously important.   _

She felt a small hand on her arm and realised with a start that she was being called upon to be kind and patient herself.  “What is that?” asked the roly-poly golden-brown human beside her, pointing to a picture drifting by in front of them. 

“Um,” said Holly, squinting at it.  “Well, it’s… a place on Earth. Those are, uh, animals.  Oh! I know those ones, they’re horses. They lived with humans long ago.”  They looked different from the horse picture Jay had shown her, being black and white striped like Zebra Jaspers, but they were the right shape, and she felt pleased with herself for recognising it.  

“What for?” the human asked, frowning.  

“Nobody knows any more,” Holly said.  “It’s a mystery. I wouldn’t trouble myself about it.”

“Why don’t horses live with us here?”

“Because you don’t need them.  There are a lot of  _ extra _ things on Earth that aren’t really necessary.  They’re interesting, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing.”

“Did you see horses when you were on Earth?”

“Oh,  _ I _ was never on Earth!  My goodness, no.” Holly hesitated before the human’s wide-eyed stare.  “I’m from  _ another _ place in space.  We call it Homeworld.  Earth is  _ your _ homeworld.  In the same way that you’re a human born on the Zoo, but humans are from Earth originally, Jay is a Gem made on Earth, but Gems are from Homeworld originally.  Is all this too far over your head?”

The human looked up, quizzically, then tipped its head back, trying to see, until it tilted over backwards and flopped onto the grass and lay there giggling.

“Yes, all right then,” said Holly, patting the human on the belly and thinking,  _ Little ditz. _

When it was the humans’ mealtime they left them tucking into fruit — amethyst apples, as it happened — and strolled back towards the door, Jay swinging their joined hands between them.  

“I thought that went really well!” she said.

“They certainly seemed to enjoy it,” Holly said, “though I don’t know how much they  _ understood.   _ Still, you’re patient enough to keep explaining until something gets into their heads.”

“They were so cute reaching out to touch things in the pictures,” Jay chuckled.  “And don’t think I didn’t see you doing some teaching yourself.”

“Not very successfully,” said Holly.  “I ended up just letting them play with my hair.”  They had brushed it all out and put it into an ornate braid that ran from the crown of her head down to the nape, studded with little flowers.  

“And very lovely it looks too,” said Jay gallantly.

“Do you think so?”  Holly picked up the end of the braid and twirled it round her fingers.  “I wouldn’t have thought human style suited me.”

“Human style?  You’d look cute in their outfit.”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Holly giggled.  “I’d never fit into it.”

“We could make you a big one!”  Jay pulled Holly round towards her and twirled her around.  “It’d look  _ great _ on you.  With your hips?  Hubba hubba.”

“Is this a new twist on your thing of thinking things are cute on humans and hot on Gems?” Holly asked, laughing as Jay spun her.  She felt something solid bump her back and found herself pressed up against the flowering tree, Jay leaning into her.

“Maybe!” said Jay, and kissed her deep and wet.  Holly yielded with a sweet little moan, combing her fingers into Jay’s soft curls.  There was that knot on the tree trunk again, and this time it got her in a bruise that wasn’t quite healed.  She yelped and twitched her hips away from it. 

“Oh, poor baby,” said Jay, clucking her tongue sympathetically.  “I’ll kiss it better.”

“Owwie,” Holly pouted.  “No, kiss here.” She touched her lips and pulled Jay back in, luxuriating in the soft warmth of her mouth, the heavy press of her body.  

“I know I just thought of it but I’m surprisingly into this dress-up idea,” Jay breathed against her lips.  “In fact I think I just got a pretty great idea.”

“Is your idea to fuck Holly up against a pretty flowering tree again, making this a tradition?”

“That’s great too, but you know how we wanna have a party to celebrate passing the fake inspection?”  

“Mmhmm?” 

“Let’s make it an Earth party!  We’ll send one set of humans for a playdate in another habitat and take the place over.  We can swim in the lagoon, we can eat yummy fruit, we can fix each other’s hair… we can play Choosening,” she added, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.  “Not to blow the surprise, but everyone Choosens you.”

“Hmm… do you think the others would like it?”

“Let’s go ask!”

“But my tradition — tree — my treedition —” Holly protested as Jay pulled her away from it.  “I was just getting so nice and wet!”

“Aw, you’re always wet,” Jay scoffed cheerfully, but she drew Holly back into her arms.  “I like having traditions too but I’d rather have ‘em somewhere more comfortable. Plus honestly, I felt kind of bad later when I thought about the tree.  We’re both so heavy and we were really going for it. I think we were lucky it didn’t break.”

“Well… I guess I can’t justify damaging the habitat,” Holly said reluctantly, wrapping her arms around Jay’s shoulders.  “You got me right in the professionalism.” She sighed. “And if I’m honest I’d prefer to do things a little more gently after my Purple Agate adventure.”

“She’s so bad,” Jay said fondly.  “Want me to be real sweet to you to balance it out?”

“Yes, please.  Ooh!” Holly shifted her arms as Jay lifted her up and gave a little air-kick of excitement.

“You be the arms,” said Jay, walking towards a tangle of flowering vines between bushes.  “Push those out of the way. Thank you, baby.” She shouldered through to a shaded space overhung by the vines, lit only by dappled fragments of light from the artificial sun, and knelt to lower Holly to the ground, cushiony with light, dry moss.  She leant over her, the thick spiral curl sliding forward from her shoulder and falling to swing against Holly’s cheek. Against the other cheek, she cupped her palm, brushing Holly’s cheekbone with her thumb. Her plump lips parted softly as she gazed down at Holly, and Holly felt a hot thrill run from her centre to her own lips, above and below.  

“My Holly,” she murmured.  “I’d love to take you home.”  She kissed her, sighing, nestling down on top of her body, and Holly spread her legs to cradle her, rocking her hips.  The flowers in her hair were getting crushed and releasing their perfume. 

“My Jay,” she breathed, sliding her hands up between them, gently squeezing Jay’s breasts, feeling her nipples harden and swell.  

“Mmm… now you gotta be quiet, okay?  They’re pretty focused on their food, but you start singing my praises and they’ll get curious.”

“Mmhmm.  Take your top off, won’t you?”  Holly slid her hands under the shoulder straps, easing them down Jay’s arms.

“Got it.”  Jay shrugged out of them, pushing her top down around her waist, her soft, heavy breasts swinging free.  “What Mama wants, Mama gets. But let’s play fair, okay?” She pulled Holly’s top from the waistband of her pants, pushing it up above her breasts together with her capelet.  

“Tit for tat?” Holly suggested.

Jay bit her lip a moment.  “No making me laugh when I’m being sexy, dammit.”

“But you’re sexy when you laugh.”

“Mmm… that’s true.  I was going for more of a mellow romantic vibe, like the setting.  Doesn’t the soft air in here feel good on your skin?” She lowered herself to kiss Holly again, lightly sucking her lower lip, sliding her hands up the sides of her body to lift her arms over her head, resting on the moss.  

“Mmm.  Is it like this on Earth?”  Holly tipped back her head to let Jay kiss under her chin and down the sides of her neck.

“Some places… in here is like all the softest, nicest parts of Earth.”  She kissed Holly’s nipple. “Like the Holly parts of Earth.” She drew it into her mouth and sucked, humming.

“The Jay parts of Earth,” Holly corrected her, echoing the hum as Jay shifted to her other breast, then catching her breath in a sharp little hitch.  “Ow!”

“What’s wrong?  Did Sharky hurt your titties too?”

“No… no, I just felt a little twinge.”  Holly thought. “I think it might be because I keep making them lactate for Chip.  I’ve done it a lot lately and maybe changing back and forth is making them tender somehow?  Don’t stop, just be more gentle.”

“You could just keep ‘em on milk mode,” Jay said, smiling.  “Chip wouldn’t complain.  _ I _ wouldn’t complain.”

“But when I do that sometimes they leak through my top,” Holly protested as Jay returned to licking her breast more softly.

“Again, I would  _ not _ complain.”  She teased Holly’s nipple with the tip of her tongue.  “You don’t  _ usually _ have a problem with stuff soaking through your clothes.”  Holly gave a little whine. “It’s so cute when you still get embarrassed.”

“What happened to being sweet?” Holly pouted.

“I mean, you’re soaking through your pants right now,” Jay pointed out, running her fingertips down the centre of Holly’s mound.

“That’s  _ supposed _ to happen.”  She concentrated briefly and dismissed her pants; Jay’s finger slipped down between her labia and she wriggled her hips happily.  “Mmm… that’s supposed to happen too.”

“Ooh, good initiative.”  Jay stroked her slowly as she kissed her breasts, drawing warm shivers through Holly’s body, a hot, sweet tickle that built until she squirmed with pleasure and pressed her hand to her mouth to mute her moans.  She resorted to folding her braid into her mouth and biting down when Jay moved down to nuzzle between her thighs and drew her tongue up over her folds. Holly lay gazing up through the vines and leaves at the scrap of soft light, arching and flexing her back and thighs as her pussy seemed to melt into sweetness.  The scents of crushed flowers and moss filled her head and blended with that pleasure until they seemed like the same thing. Jay lay between her thighs with one hand massaging Holly’s outer labia as her tongue worked the inner lips, the other tucked inside her own pants, two fingers steadily pumping in the lapping wet.

Holly’s muffled voice rose in surges together with the pulse in her cunt as Jay worked her, though she did her best to hold it in.  She truly didn’t want to be seen by humans in this state, the thought of getting caught was  _ not _ good, but at the same time the feeling of getting away with something in secret was thrilling.  A sharp whimper escaped as a great throb of pleasure rolled through her, and Jay raised her head, hazy-eyed and flushed, and gave her a teasing smile.  “Sshh.”

“Help me!” Holly whispered urgently, dropping the braid from her mouth.

“How?”

“Hold on.”  Holly struggled into a sitting position, clumsy with haste because she didn’t want the intensity she was feeling to recede.  She twisted on her hip and lay down facing the other way, her head level with Jay’s lap, and fumbled to pull her pants over her hips.

“Good girl,” Jay breathed, “smart girl, keep your mouth busy.”  She pushed her pants down below her knees and opened her legs to invite Holly in.  Lying curled on their sides, each nuzzled in to kiss and lick the other’s pussy, Jay’s movements a little more steady, Holly’s clumsy with eager, giddy desire.  The salty tang of Jay’s smell blotted out the heady flower scents and her metallic-sweet taste filled her mouth. It felt impossibly good to bury her face between these thick, strong thighs, their soft inner curves against her cheeks, and smother any sounds she wanted to make against Jay’s slick, swollen lips.  

Jay gave a purring groan, a soft shadow of Sharky’s growls, and fluttered her tongue against Holly’s stiff, hot clitoris.  Working feverishly to give Jay something like the pleasure she was feeling, Holly sucked at her lips, swirled her tongue, ran her hand over the curve of Jay’s buttock to press her fingers into the cleft and rub the soft pucker of her anus.  “In,” Jay grunted, and Holly pushed in her middle finger to the second knuckle, swivelling it in the silky heat. She couldn’t think of anything now but the wonderful surge building under Jay’s tongue, how fiercely she loved her and how much she wanted that surge to rush through both of them together till there was no difference between them.  She got lost in that love and that need, the lush taste of Jay’s wet cunt and the way she quivered as she rode a wave, until she was feeling the last throbs and flickers of her own joy, panting dizzily with her head pillowed on Jay’s thigh.

She felt Jay patting, stroking her hair with a shaky hand, then softly kissing the curve of her belly.  “Wanna go to sleep here,” she murmured, “but we’d prob’ly wake up with a dozen humans staring at us through the bushes.”

“We’ll have to get up,” Holly agreed, nodding, and continued to lie there in a dream.  After a few minutes the sound of feet pattering by as the humans played chase galvanised them both into sitting up, reassembling their clothes, trying to do something with the tangle Holly’s pretty hairstyle had become, strands hanging out of the plait and crushed flowers drooping at all angles.  Jay undid it and finger-combed it as well as she could, kissing Holly’s forehead, cheeks and nose as she did. 

“So do you think that’s how it would feel?” Holly whispered.  

“What would feel?”

“Making love on Earth.” 

Jay pulled her in and kissed her deeply, and murmured, “I hope so,” against her cheek.   
  


 


	24. Chapter 24

The Earth Party idea was received with huge enthusiasm; Jay was good at getting the others fired up for her ideas, and they were all ready for a celebration anyway.

“This is our reward for doing great when Purple Agate inspected us, right, Holly-dolly?” Ellie asked, scooping her up and swinging her around in her arms as they made their way bathwards.  “You’re throwing us a party!”

“And my reward for doing great  _ as _ Purple Agate,” Sharky declared.

“Pscht, you got your reward already when you debriefed Holly,” said Skinny.

“Yeah, you debriefed the shit outta her,” Carnelian added.  “She was really zonked.” She gave Sharky a jab in the back of the knee that almost buckled her leg.

“Hey, ya little shit!”  Sharky made a show of chasing her to the bathroom, shaking her fist, while Carnelian ran and cackled.

Holly felt a touch on her arm while she was kissing Ellie and reluctantly turned from her to find Chip not quite meeting her eyes.

“Someone should watch the humans so I’ll skip the party,” she said.

“What?  No!” Holly exclaimed, and Ellie echoed her “No!”

“It’s okay, I mean, I don’t deserve to go, I messed up so bad in the inspection,” Chip mumbled.

“Nonsense, Chip.  We succeeded together.  No one gets left out. Understand?”  Holly scrambled down from Ellie’s arms and caught hold of Chip’s hands.  “How do you think the rest of us could enjoy ourselves if we knew you were missing out, hmm?”

“Um…”

“We couldn’t, so don’t be silly.  It won’t do the humans any harm to have a few hours with Little Voice minding them, and if anyone frets, well, I can work out a schedule for checking on them.  No one has to miss the fun.” She pulled Chip’s head down onto her bosom and hugged her tight, then swivelled her hips against her. That was a bit sneaky of her, she knew, because Chip was so sensitive and easily excitable, and frankly it always gave her vanity a little boost to pull Chip close against her body and feel her respond instantly.  Her breathing changed, her hips bumped forward and Holly felt her cock twitch and rise against her own tummy. 

“Mamaaaa…” she said in a faint whine.  

“And I want my sweet Chippy to fuck me in front of everyone,” Holly whispered against her cheek.  “Don’t you want to make me come really hard with everyone cheering you on?”

“You’re teasing me,” Chip said, but Holly could feel her cheek curve in a smile, and she slid her hands down to cup Holly’s bottom.

“I wouldn’t tease you,” Holly said.  “Maybe just a little bit. With love.”

“What’s goin’ on here?” Skinny asked, sauntering up and giving Chip a friendly goosing.  

“Dooooon’t.  I’ll get weird if you play with my butt,” Chip said, squirming her hips in a figure eight.

“I’m just telling Chip how important it is that she attends the Earth Party with everyone,” Holly said.

“Damn right,” said Skinny.  “I need you to show me how to enjoy it.  I never did get the fun side of Earth.”

“Aw,” said Chip, reluctantly raising her head from Holly’s breasts, and Ellie scratched her head and said, “Ah, yeah.”  

“Why not?” Holly asked, surprised.

“Uh, Beta?” said Skinny.  “Like it’s not just the place, it’s the time.  The Primes are older than us. They were around for some of the good times, seeing things get built, looking at scenery no one was trying to blow up.  We got born into the middle of a war and it was already going to shit.”

“Weren’t you ever happy there?” Holly asked, dismayed.  If the Earth Party would only be fun for the Primes it might not be right to hold it at all; she hadn’t realised it could be so insensitive.

“Oh, I didn’t say  _ that. _  I had Carnie and everyone.  I liked days when the sun shone and nothing happened.  You could just lie out on a rock and bask and soak it up.  Like a liz… lizard. I think those little scaly guys were called lizards.”  Skinny tipped her head back and closed her eyes as if feeling the sun on her face again.  

“Then you know what?  I’m gonna set the sunlamps nice and hot over a big rock, get it all preheated, and you can bask like a lizard as much as you want,” said Chip, turning away from Holly to hug Skinny.  Skinny wrapped her long arms around her and rested her cheek on top of her tousled head. 

“You’re a good friend,” she said.  “And your massive boner for Holly is poking me in the tummy.”  Holly heard Chip give a sputtering laugh. “I’m serious, that’s a lot of dick.  You’re always so horny, what’s  _ that _ about.”

“You should bone her on her hot rock, it’d be the friendly thing to do,” Ellie said, slinging her arm around Holly’s shoulders again.  

“Yeah, promise you will?” Skinny asked.  “You know I’ll have a good time if you do.”

“And then you  _ gotta _ be at the party ‘cuz Skinny is counting on you,” Ellie said, snapping her fingers and pointing at Chip.  

“Just like me,” said Holly, leaning against Ellie’s side and feeling very proud of their kindness.

“Yeah, you’re in demand,” said Ellie.  “Enjoy it!” She scooped Holly up again.  “So you don’t need Holly right now, right?”  With Holly bouncing in her arms she ran for the bathroom, laughing, Chip shouting in protest behind them.  

 

The Earth Party turned out to take a little more organisation than Holly had expected because the Quartzes kept thinking of things they wanted to add to it; floral garlands for everyone to wear, colourful drinks made of juice pressed out of various fruits, holograms of Earth scenery and animals, a fairly convincing artificial shark that floated in the lagoon and would take Gems for rides on its back.  Holly was baffled at the time and effort Sharky and Skinny had put into that together, with Kay as their artistic consultant, but they showed it to her with such excitement, so eager for her to approve and praise them, she could only tell them it was truly impressive and she was proud of them.

She was glad all that was done, because she’d been getting more and more excited for her own role in the party.  After some trying on and tailoring in the privacy of her room, she had gone from thinking Jay was being a bit silly about the costume to feeling it might actually suit her rather well.  She had reluctantly accepted that she couldn’t wear her boots with it, they looked completely mismatched, and compensated for her legs feeling ordinary without them by wearing little ruffs of flowers around her ankles.  She had considered wearing her hair in that long braid, but she hadn’t quite mastered the way you had to gather strands in from the sides as you worked, and decided to wear her usual style but with two more ruffs of flowers around the bases of the buns.  

She wasn’t entirely sure if these clothes had been designed by Pink Diamond herself or simply adapted from what the humans’ ancestors were already wearing, but whoever designed them clearly considered easy access a priority.  She had already wasted quite some time bending over in front of the mirror, looking back over her shoulder and practising how she would pull the rear flap of fabric aside to offer herself, then masturbating to the thought of what would come next.  Of course she hadn’t actually  _ shown _ anyone yet.  It needed to be a surprise.  Only Jay even knew it was in the plan.

The habitat chosen for the party was the same one she and Jay had visited, the usual inhabitants moved to another for the time being.  They had trotted off quite happily. That wasn’t unusual; they were often moved to allow for cleaning or maintenance work that would have been dangerous or difficult to do with them loose in the habitat, which was part of why the Zoo had been designed with multiple habitat spaces rather than one large one.  That meant that she knew where there was a convenient hidey-hole to change into the costume which she smuggled in wrapped up in her capelet while the others were putting the finishing touches on their party decorations. The moss was still crushed down where they had lain and rolled during their tryst, and she wondered a little what kind of damage they would do to the rest of the habitat today.  Oh well, it would recover. There was no mirror in here so she just had to hope everything looked right; she gave one last tug and jiggle to the top to make sure her breasts were safely settled in it before taking a deep breath, appreciating the tingly anticipatory feeling, and heading out to be seen. 

Most of the Quartzes were gathered in the flat, grassy area beside the lagoon where tables had been set out laden with fruit and buckets and jars of the different blends of juices they had come up with.  Discussions like “If you mix these two it gets nice and sour and tangy” and “Sure, crushing it in your fist is  _ fun _ but you get a lot of pulp in it” fell silent as they saw her approaching and gave way to whistles, cheers and whoops.

“Holy shit, Holly!”

“Hot mama alert!  Extreme hot mama alert!”

“You  _ own _ the theme of this party!”

“This was my idea!  This was my idea! Doesn’t she look  _ awesome?” _

“She’s fucking adorable when she gets all blushy and stoked.”

“Can I rip it off you?”

“Noooo!  It’s too cute to take off.”

Holly laughed in delight and twirled around to let them all see her from all angles.

“You gotta let me paint you like that!” Kay cried.  “I never thought of putting you in costumes!”

“This isn’t quite as hot as her morale officer uniform.”

“But I think it’s cuter!”

“Hey Holly!” Jay hurried over, caught hold of her hand, whispered in her ear, tickling her cheek with her warm breath.  “Yeah?”

“Yes!”  Holly felt a rush of ticklish warmth and a sweet tug between her thighs.

“Okay, everyone!” Jay announced.  “Nearly everyone’s here, right? The laties can catch up when they get here.  As you can see, we’ve set up different areas for different kinds of party fun.  The tables for yummies and drinks, the lagoon for swimming, the rocks for sunbathing, fuck anywhere you can find a comfy spot… and over  _ here, _ on her cushion, we’ll have Holly for oral and any other ways you wanna play with her.”  The cheers for that were deafening.

“Let’s hear it for the blowjob station!”

“Oh my stars, this is giving me nostalgia.”

“I call first!”

 

Chip knew she was running late, but she had felt so bad about ditching her humans for the day, even for a party that was meant to be for everyone, that she’d tried to spend a little extra time playing with them and got way behind schedule.  It was strange to think it was only a few months since they’d switched from the hands-off policy to interacting with the humans every day; now she couldn’t imagine life without them. She was thinking that if she talked about it with Jay they might work out how to get Holly to take responsibility for a little group of humans; she always listened kindly when Chip wanted to talk about them but Chip knew she didn’t understand what it was like to care about them so much.  

Holly had said things about not being cut out for a nurturing role, but Chip was sure that wasn’t right.  Sure, she hadn’t been nurturing in the past, but now she’d decided she  _ wanted _ to be she was amazing at it.  Did she maybe think that she couldn’t do it without sex?  Surely she just needed some tips and encouragement. Chip would love being able to encourage and coach  _ her _ in something.  

She took just enough time to quickly clean up and brush her hair in the bathroom before hurrying down to the habitat.  The door was standing open and she could hear sounds of laughter, splashing water, someone singing a song she hadn’t heard for thousands of years.  Just inside she bumped into Bee and Kitty, whose arms were hung with wreaths and necklaces of flowers. 

“Chippy!” Bee exclaimed.  “You made it! This party is going off.  Here, this’ll look great on you.” She placed a crown of purple flowers on Chip’s head.

“Aw, thanks!” Chip kissed them both, smelling the flowers and leaves twined into their hair.  “You both look beautiful. Did you make all of these yourselves?”

“Wait’ll you see Holly!” Kitty exclaimed, and Bee elbowed her warningly, which made both of them laugh.  

“Why?  What’s she doing?” Chip asked eagerly.  

“I said wait,” said Kitty, grinning.  “You won’t have to wait long.”

“Go on and get some treats and have fun,” said Bee.  Giggling together, they disappeared into the bushes. 

The next person she saw as she walked on was Exes, who had a branch of little sapphire berries and popped one in Chip’s mouth.  It burst on her tongue and filled her mouth with sweetness that made her smile without a thought. Just around the bend in the path she met Carnelian, naked except for a crown of green leaves and giggly, who grabbed her hand and pulled her along to the main clearing.  “Check  _ that _ out!” Carnelian said gleefully.  

Chip followed the line of her pointing arm and gasped.  On one side of the clearing Holly sat astride a large pink cushion, her arms behind her, hands gripping her ankles.  Someone was just stepping away from in front of her — Chip didn’t really notice who — stroking her fingertips along Holly’s jaw and tipping up her chin before releasing her, and her upturned face was so beautiful Chip could only stare.  Her eyes were hazy with desire, their pupils wide and dark, and her cheeks and lips were so flushed they looked stained with the berry juice Chip could still taste. Her mouth glistened with sleek wetness, still open as she licked her lips, and her heavy breasts rose and fell with her deep, gusty breathing.  She was dressed in a copy of the humans’ uniform, the top barely able to contain her breasts and the hanging front panel bunched between her legs and under her bottom, clearly getting soaked as Holly rode the cushion. There was a spreading dark patch on the pink brocade between her thighs. There were splashes and drips of semen on Holly’s neck, breasts, belly; even a little in her tousled hair, loops and ringlets starting to twirl out of the buns where strong hands had gripped them.  

Chip felt a light touch on the tip of her dick and yelped in shock; she’d been so lost in gazing at Holly she’d forgotten about herself completely.  Carnelian was beaming up at her with a big mischievous smile, pointing to the erection that was already full-blown and tenting out her pants. “You’re ready to party,” she said.  

“She is perfect, isn’t she?” Chip asked fervently.  “I mean holy shit. Look at her. Like a — some kind of goddess or something!”

“So let’s go pray, or something,” said Carnelian.  “She’s free now but you gotta be quick.” She towed Chip over by the hand.  “You havin’ a good time, Holly Boo?”

Holly blinked in recognition.  “Oh, my crimson beauties! I’m having  _ such _ a good time.  Did you just get here, Chippy?”

“Yeah… sorry I’m late…  You look so beautiful!”

“‘Cuz you’re late you gotta pay a forfeit,” Carnelian declared, yanking down on Chip’s arm.  “Hands’n’knees, you.”

“Why, though?” Chip asked, complying with some confusion.

“So I can sit on you,” said Carnelian, pushing her into place in front of Holly and clambering up on her back.  “See, all you tall bitches got Holly to kneel so she’s at a great height to suck dick and eat pussy,  _ for you.   _ For  _ me, _ either she’s gotta flop on her back so I can sit on her face, or flop forward to get her face in my lap.  But she’s enjoying sitting there all pretty on her pillow, she doesn’t wanna flop! So you be a good little bench seat and Holly can just lean in and get a nice taste.”  Chip felt her shifting her weight as she spread her legs and leant back on her hands. 

“Oh, okay.”

Chip heard Holly give a warm little chuckle.  “You’re too kind, Chippy. Be  _ very _ patient and I’ll take extra care of you after.”  Then she moaned softly, and Chip heard the soft wet sound of her lips on Carnelian’s skin and Carnelian’s little grunt of pleasure.  It was frustrating that she couldn’t  _ see  _ any of that.  She locked her elbows and held still as best she could and tried turning her head to the side, which meant her view of Holly’s face was blocked by Carnie’s chubby hip and thigh, but at least she could hear them both and smell them and see Holly’s body.  Holly was lapping, breathing heavily, and Carnie was hitching her hips against her tongue.

“You wanna know who you’re tasting?” Carnie asked.

“Hnnh?”  Holly ground her hips around on the cushion and Chip noticed a bead of sweat travelling down between her breasts.  The little dark blue waistcoat was sliding off her shoulders, sliding apart as the cord belt slipped, and her swollen nipples had raised bumps in the soft white fabric wrapped under it.  

“A little of Gee… a lot of Tee, she was really backed up for some reason.  Mmm… fuck, I know I’m a pervert but I  _ love _ getting loaded up and seeing you lick it out.  Look at you, Holly, you’re so  _ good. _  Such a good obedient little pussy-licker.  You sure you’re an Agate? Maybe they just told you that.  Maybe you’re a secret experiment to create a Gem who’s nothing but a sloppy slut.”

Holly gave a kind of whine of protest that ended in a giggle.  Chip  _ wished _ she could see her face, the laughter in her eyes looking up over Carnie’s bush; it felt  _ so _ good to make Holly laugh.  Added to that, the smell of Holly’s juicy pussy was really reaching her now and she wanted to bury her own face in it.  Her cock was twitching in her pants and she both wanted to get rid of them and to enjoy that feverish trapped horny feeling while it lasted, to let it build so when she finally did it would be an overwhelming relief.   _ I must look kind of weird, kneeling here making a seat for Carnie with my dick sticking out.  Kind of want someone to come along and touch my butt.  _ That led her to a mental picture of someone coming along to fuck her while she was stuck in this position, which she knew was silly because she wasn’t really  _ stuck _ and plus Carnie wouldn’t stand for anyone fucking her seat and making it shake, but the  _ idea _ that she was stuck and they could just walk up and use her as easily as they’d use Holly was making her hips quiver.  She wanted to tell Holly that fantasy next time they were alone together. She felt giddy with desire and frustration and Carnie was bouncing on her back, squealing with delight and giving Holly a filthy pep talk.

“Fuck, yes!  Oh Holly,  _ fuck, _ flick your tongue right there, yeah!  So good,  _ so _ good!   _ Ah!” _

Chip braced herself to stay steady and listened to Holly’s husky moans, the little snuffling, smacking sounds as she worked her jaw and her tongue, totally focused on giving pleasure, while Carnie’s cries rose higher and her chubby little butt ground around on Chip’s back and her hands clutched and her heels scrabbled.  At last she let out a long, contented sigh and lay back, her head hanging down on Chip’s other side. 

Holly rocked back and caught her breath, licking her lips, finally where Chip could see her again.  She looked as contented as Carnie sounded, her eyes half-lidded and her long dark lashes fanned. 

“Hey, Mama?” Chip tried to catch her eye, craning her neck.  

“Mmm?”  Holly seemed to come out of her daze and blinked at her.  “Oh, sweetie, have you stayed like that the whole time? Well, of course you have, but how uncomfortable for you!”  For the first time she brought her hands out from behind her and pushed at Carnie’s knees. “Carnelian 9-2QR, hop down right now, you’re taking advantage of poor Chippy’s good nature.” 

“Well,  _ yeah,” _ said Carnie, not moving.  “She likes it. You know how she is about hanging back watching.”

“Chippy, as your commanding officer I order you to buck Carnie off right now.”

“Yes, Agate!” Chip said gladly, arching her back and bouncing.  Carnie tumbled off with a cuss and a laugh. She rolled to her feet, blew Holly a kiss and scampered off.  

_ “So _ naughty,” Holly huffed.  She opened her arms to Chip with a bright smile, and Chip half-fell into her embrace.  Kissing Holly rapturously, she wanted nothing more than to pull her to straddle her lap and slide into her that way, but she could see Holly was playing a game and the rules might not allow for that.  

“You look so, so gorgeous,” Chip panted when they separated to look at each other again.  “I love seeing you this way. Are you having lots of fun?”

“I most certainly am.  Do you like the costume?”

“It’s really cute.  I love how you’re spilling out of it.”

Holly giggled.  “I can feel it falling apart.  I’m just waiting to see when it finally gives way and my breasts come tumbling out.”

“Are you just doing oral?”

_ “I _ am, but the others can touch me however they like.  I keep my hands at my ankles, since I don’t have heels in this get-up.  I’m really cheating now cuddling you, but you know, you’re such a pet I don’t think anyone will mind.”  Holly stroked Chip’s hair back from her face and dropped her voice to a soft whisper. “Do you like seeing Mama be a slut?”

_ “So _ much.”  A shiver ran up Chip’s back and her cock gave a throb.  

“Are you thinking about how you’d feel doing this?”

“K-kind of.”  Chip whispered too, bringing her lips closer to Holly’s ear.  “I was thinking what if, while I was stuck like that being a seat for Carnie, someone came along and started touching me?  What if they decided to fuck me in the ass? ‘Cuz everyone knew I was available for that… but I’d never know when it would start or how… and I couldn’t see who it was if I kept my head down.  I wouldn’t even  _ know _ who was pushing her big, hot dick up my asshole.”

“And you like the idea of that?” Holly asked.  “Just the idea, for starters?”

“Yeah.”  Chip closed her eyes as she felt Holly’s hand skim slowly down over her tummy.  She was probably going to come as soon as Holly touched her, it felt that way, and talking about this made it even more likely.  

“Would you like to keep observing and learning from example?  You could sit beside me on your own cushion. You wouldn’t have to declare in public that you want to be a slut yet, because everyone  _ does _ know that you enjoy watching me while you hold back.”

“Please,” Chip said faintly, and then Holly slid her hand over her cock to cup it through the fabric of her pants and she was done for.  The shiver was back, stronger than ever, and it rapidly became a spasm, a huge embarrassing sweet rush that spurted messily through her pants.  Holly kissed her cheek and murmured, “Such a good, horny girl. You couldn’t wait, could you? You came so nicely for me.”

“Mmm… em _ barr _ assing.”

“Would you like to sit on your cushion with cum soaking through your pants and watch me?”

_ “Yes.”   _ It meant deferring the joy of sliding into Holly’s pussy still further, but it sounded  _ wonderful. _

“I know there were some spare cushions around her somewhere,” Holly said, lifting her hand and delicately licking her fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter seems a little short to me, but this felt like a good spot to pause before going on to the next _movement._


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Earth party continues and Chip gets a turn to shine.

Eager, laughing, their hair twined with flowers, Quartzes kept coming to Holly’s position, tucked in under the weeping flower boughs at one side of the big clearing.  They didn’t actually queue up, it was just that there was never much of a pause in between visitors, as if they were hanging around watching for an opening, and often a small group turned up together.  Holly welcomed them all with open arms and open mouth. Several of them wanted to play with her, teasing with clever fingers as long as they could before letting her come. She had wet her cushion in sprays squirting, and she was absolutely aching to be fucked properly, but they were all  _ meanies, _ to put it bluntly, who tucked the front of her loincloth back in between her thighs and laughed affectionately at her whining and pouting before they strolled off to find their next amusement.

Chip sat loyally beside her, gazing adoringly.  She had decided to impose one of Holly’s rules on herself and knelt in the same position, although rather than holding her ankles she sat on her hands.  No one had touched her yet but she had managed to come in her pants again, mostly through friction from grinding her hips around. Several Gems had commented that she looked cute sitting there, and one cheerful “I’m seeing a whole different side of you!” had made her blush deeply, but they didn’t seem to think of asking Chip to blow them or eat them out.  Holly thought they might just be assuming that she was there purely to indulge her voyeurism, and that was probably for the best until Chip got bold enough to declare that she wanted to show more of that different side.

However, a challenge arose in the form of Sharky.  She came swaggering over, naked and decked with garlands and girdles of flowers (Holly noticed that she or someone else had actually twined the stems of a few tiny flowers into her pubic hair, which she appreciated as an artistic touch) and stood before them, legs apart and fists on hips, grinning down at them.  

“The catering at this party is aces,” she said.  “Nobody told me we had  _ two _ sluts laid on.”

Chip gave a guilty little gasp and blushed magenta.  

“What?” said Sharky, carelessly folding her arms behind her head (flaunting her powerful arms and full breasts, Holly thought with mingled amusement and approval).  “You’re sitting there on your little cushion just like Holly.”

“You’re teasing me,” Chip said with a faltering laugh.  

“Chip is observing,” Holly said, hoping to spare Chip any embarrassment.  “You know how much she likes to do that.”

“Given she’s sitting in a puddle of her own cum, I guess so.”  Sharky scruffed her hand through Chip’s tousled hair. “This is a good look for you.  That’s not teasing. You and Holly match.”

“Well, no, I mean I’m not in a cute little outfit like hers,” Chip said, giving her shoulders a little wriggle of pleasure at being petted.  “Doesn’t she look great?”

“Oh yes, she does.”  Sharky moved her hand to Holly’s head, rumpling between the dishevelled buns.  “She’s in her element, aren’tcha, Holls? Oh look, she sees something she likes.”

“I do,” said Holly.  She could see Sharky’s cock thickening and perking up, nudging out between the hanging loops of flowers.  “Something long, and hard, and a beautiful rich purple.”

“Yeah?  It’s your favourite, right?”  Her large hand slid down to cup Holly’s cheek and stroke her jaw, her thumb brushing her lips.  “Whatcha wanna do?” Holly closed her eyes and sucked, rolling her tongue against Sharky’s blunt thumbtip.  “That’s right, you wanna suck it. I don’t blame you.  _ I’ve  _ sucked it when I was feeling flexible, but it’s more fun to see you wanna do it.  Look at that face. Everyone else’s sucking the juice out of fruit but Holly wants to suck the juice out of my dick.”

Holly grumbled softly and looked up at Sharky, her glittering eyes and her proud, lascivious smile.  She was clearly set to tease for as long as she could get away with it, even though it meant waiting to feel Holly’s lips on her cock.  Holly’s mouth was watering, and she sucked Sharky’s thumb a little harder, trying to remind her how that would feel. She could happily have kept just gazing at her, but she turned her eyes for a moment to check on Chip.  

She was halfway off her cushion, leaning forward on her hands, staring intently, eyes flicking from Holly’s mouth to Sharky’s rising erection.  Her own mouth was restless, lips pressing together, nipped between her teeth, then parting as her tongue-tip swept over them. When their eyes met the flush of her cheeks deepened and her mouth opened softly.  Surprising and impressing Holly, she suddenly moved, pushing her head under Sharky’s free hand, hanging at her side. Sharky looked a little surprised too, but took it in her stride, stroking and ruffling Chip’s hair, and the encouragement brought her closer, rubbing her head against Sharky’s thick thigh.  She looked almost frantic and deeply embarrassed, but there was an urgency in her movements that Holly could feel in her own body. 

“Hey,” Sharky murmured, “what’s this, huh?  You want some too?” Chip whimpered. “Oh my.  Holly, you think you can share?”

Holly released Sharky’s thumb and leaned in to kiss Chip’s fidgety lips.  “What do you want, baby?” she whispered against her cheek. “Want to help me suck Sharky off?”  Chip gave an uncertain little whine. “I am  _ so _ proud of you going for what you want.  And she likes it, see? So if you want to…”

“Can you help me?” Chip whispered back.  “I want to so bad.”

“Of  _ course, _ lovey.  Just follow my lead.”  Feeling a warm surge of excitement, Holly kissed her once more before turning her attention back to Sharky.  “It’s your lucky day,” she said, “because the two of us have decided to treat you.”

Sharky snickered.  “I must’ve been  _ very _ good.”

“Not really.  We’re just nice.  And it’s a party! Now Chippy, you haven’t tried Sharky’s cock before, have you?”

“Uh-uh,” said Chip, staring at it.

“Then she’s going to behave herself and not try to stuff it down your throat.  And I’m going to bend my rules and use my hands, just to make this nice and easy.”  Holly ran her hands up Sharky’s inner thighs and wrapped one snugly around the base of her cock.  “Let’s take a side each to start, hmm?” She drew her tongue along the side of the thick shaft to flick at the head.  Chip stared, wide-eyed and determined, and followed on the other side. Sharky grunted softly and hissed with satisfaction.  “That’s right. Just follow what I do.”

Nose to nose, they polished the head of Sharky’s cock with their tongues, pausing now and then to kiss; Holly could feel Chip growing a little more confident and purposeful each time their lips met.  She was so  _ adorable _ when she got over her shyness and became eager and passionate; Holly hoped Sharky was seeing it.  She supposed in a way she was trying to show Chip off to her. Jay and Sharky had encouraged  _ her _ to focus on Chip; now she sort of wanted to say, “See what I’ve done with her?  See my lovely little protégée?” That thought almost stopped her licking; here she was presenting Chip to Sharky for her pleasure as if Sharky were an elite Gem at Court who could be her mistress.  Laughing at the reversal right now would only throw Chip off, but it had never quite struck her like that before and it made her falter, panting against the thick shaft.

“That’s nice,” said Sharky, “now  _ suck _ it.”  With a little startled intake of breath, Chip moved before Holly could and took the head of Sharky’s cock in her mouth, sucking earnestly and looking up at her for approval.  “Oh wow,” Sharky breathed, “you’re a  _ good _ girl.  That’s what I want.”  She combed her fingers through Chip’s hair, pulling it back.  “Think you can take me a little deeper?”

“Hmmkh.”  Chip swallowed and wiggled her head forward, her cheeks hollowing with suction as she bobbed back again, still gazing up at Sharky wide-eyed.  

“She’s so sweet, isn’t she?” Holly asked.  “She’ll do just about  _ anything _ to please you.  Here, Chippy, let me help.”  She shuffled just behind Chip and pulled her shoulder straps down her arms, pushing her uniform top down to her waist as she moaned and lifted her hands to Sharky’s hips, crushing her belts of flowers.  Holly stroked Chip’s tummy with one hand and slid the other into her cum-soaked pants, finding her stiff and hot and slippery. “I’ll make you feel good while you make Sharky feel good, how’s that?” Chip quivered all over and began to bob and suck more urgently, a trickle of glistening liquid escaping the corner of her mouth and travelling down her jaw.

“Holy shit,” said Sharky.  “Can you see how she’s slurping on me?  Fuck, Chippy, I had no idea you were… well, so much like Holly.”  Chip made a muffled sound and ground her cock into Holly’s palm. 

“Well, I don’t want to show off but I have been giving her lessons,” Holly murmured.  

“Slut training?” Sharky purred, rolling her hips.

“Exactly.  I think another thing we have in common is that she loves hearing us praising her.  Don’t you, Chippy? Mmm? Oh yes, you do. You might be Sharky’s new favourite. It’s okay, baby, you don’t have to take it that deep all at once.  Slowly now,” Holly coaxed her on. “Oh, you’re doing  _ so _ well.  Can you hear how fast she’s breathing?  That’s the sound of a very happy Sharky.”

“Fuck yeah it is,” Sharky panted.  “You can suck me off whenever you want, Chippy.  Don’t hold back when the mood strikes. Just open wide.”  She grunted, clenching her buttocks. “Oh, I’m really close.  You like it in your mouth?” Chip whimpered, her jaw working. “Good  _ girl. _  Holly trained you just right for me.  You’re gonna get a little belly, I’ll feed you so much.  You ready? You want it? Here it is! Oh,  _ fuck,  _ here it is.”  She clutched her handfuls of Chip’s hair as her hips twitched in her climax, and Holly felt Chip trembling, gulping.  A few moments later Sharky stepped back and sat down, legs sprawling, leaning back on her arms as she panted. Chip sank back into Holly’s arms, her chest heaving, looking dazed.  

“I am  _ so _ proud of you,” Holly whispered, kissing her cheek, pumping her hand faster until Chip came, rather weakly for her, a splatter rather than a full-strength spurt.  Her face looked blissful and she made a kind of low cooing sound of relaxed pleasure. 

“Okay,” Sharky said, sitting up a bit, “I dunno what inspired your switch here from a shy little stud to a horny little slut, but I am  _ impressed. _  Are you up for taking it in the ass now too?  Because I could  _ ruin _ that ass if you are.”

“You would?” Chip asked faintly.  “Like you’d be rough?”

“I would fuck you  _ ruthlessly.   _ Just like Holly.”

“Oh  _ wow.”   _ Chip looked starry-eyed.  

“Pace yourself,” said Holly, amused.  “The last time she had me I couldn’t get out of bed for a couple of days.”

“That wasn’t me, that was Purple Agate,” said Sharky airily.  “I can’t control what that psycho bitch does.”

“Maybe I could work my way up to that,” Chip said.  “When I’m a really  _ experienced _ slut like Mama.”  She turned her head and nuzzled Holly’s cheek.  “I admire her so much.”

“You’re  _ gaining _ experience.  Did you enjoy your first time being that submissive for someone other than me?”

Chip nodded and giggled.  “I was a little nervous trying it with  _ Sharky _ but then, she’s  _ so  _ hot.”

“What?  Like I’m scary?” Sharky asked indignantly.

“You were just promising to ruin her ass with ruthless fucking,” Holly pointed out.  

“Yeah, but  _ nicely. _  You know.  In a supportive encouraging way.  When she’s in bed afterward bloated with cum and too weak to move, I’ll toss a blanket over her and tell her she’s my best little bitch.”

Chip covered her beaming smile with her hands and hid her blushing face in Holly’s shoulder.

“Oh what, you like that?” Sharky asked, grinning lazily.  “You’re a hot little bitch and a needy slut just like Mama Holly.”

“Eee!” went Chip, clearly tickled, and Holly hugged her, giggling affectionately.  

“Aw, lookit that,” Sharky said, “you mussed up my floral tributes.”  She got to her feet and fussed ineffectually with the crumpled flowers looped around her hips, shedding petals.  “Now I look all  _ dishevelled. _  Hey, I’m gonna go get some juice, you want any?”

_ “No _ thank you,” said Holly.

“Something sweet, please,” Chip said hopefully.  

“Will do.  I take care of my fucks.  Keep her warm for me, Holls.”  Sharky gave them a kind of jaunty double finger-snap-and-point and strolled off.

 

“That means she’ll be coming back, right?” Chip asked Holly.  “For more?”

“I think so,” Holly said, licking Chip’s spunk off her fingers.  “You want some more already?” she asked with an indulgent smile.

“Oh, gosh, I didn’t think it’d go so fast.  I really did that, didn’t I? If you’d asked me an hour ago I’d’ve said no way was I ready for that, and now I’m thinking how long till she fucks me?”  Chip felt as if her body was fizzing. Usually she was relaxed for a while after coming but the thought of more Sharky had her all giddy.

“I think once you get started, as long as you’re having a good time it’s easy to go further than you thought,” Holly mused.  “That’s how it was for me.”

“Seriously.  You just showed up one day and took  _ everyone _ on.  Total legend.  I admit I’m not ready for  _ that. _  Well, I don’t expect  _ everyone _ to want to.  But yeah! I’m really thinking today could be the day.  Oh my stars, I really am.” She hugged herself and flopped out of Holly’s lap, rolling from side to side on the grass.  “And Sharky was totally into it! She didn’t look down at me at all. Like, other than literally. I loved  _ that _ part.  She’s so tall and strong and eee!”  She stopped rolling and gazed up at the softly lit artificial sky.  “I’ve always sucked some of my friends off in private but it was never hot like  _ that. _  Wow.”  

“Hot like what?” asked a cheerful voice.  Skinny and Carnelian came strolling up hand in hand, their lips stained with berry juice.  They had drawings on their skins, Kay’s signature style; Skinny’s tiny pointed breasts were flowers with her nipples at their centres and Carnelian’s belly bore another masterpiece of calligraphy to communicate the message “CUM ON IN,” a twirly arrow below pointing downward.

“Oh crap!”  Chip bolted up to a sitting position.  “I forgot all about you! I was meant to fuck you on the rocks.  I’m so sorry, Skinny.”

“I don’t think we set a time you had to do it by,” Skinny said, shrugging.  “You look like a happy mess, so it’s okay.”

“I came back to make amends and shit,” said Carnelian.  She straddled Chip’s lap and smooched her mouth, flicking her tongue between her lips.  “You been eating Holly out after she gets fucked? Tastes like it.” 

“Uhh… actually, I just blew Sharky,” she said, feeling shy but very proud.

“Blew  _ Sharky?” _ Carnelian repeated.  “That’s different.”

“Yeah, I’m… I’m trying something different.  I hope you guys don’t mind,” Chip said, glancing from her to Skinny.  

“What’s to mind?” Skinny asked, slinging herself down to sit cross-legged between them.  “We both gobble dick any time we feel like it. You never needed to be hung up about it.”

“So it’s cool with you if I maybe wanna get fucked in public like you guys or Holly?”

“Hell  _ yeah,” _ said Carnelian brightly.  “You gonna open up a pussy too?”

Chip blinked.  “I hadn’t thought about  _ that _ yet.  My ass is enough, isn’t it?”

“Course it is, especially for Sharky.”  Skinny clapped her on the back and leaned over toward Holly.  “You look pretty stoked.”

“I am!  I’m just so proud of Chippy.  And I flatter myself I’ve been something of a role model,” Holly said, preening a little.

“I’ll say you are,” said Skinny, glancing at Holly’s breasts appreciatively.  

“It was  _ so  _ much fun helping Chip make her début it  _ almost _ took my mind off, well, my own unquenchable desire.”

Skinny laughed.  “Yeah, we heard you were ultra thirsty.  And after so many Gems were nice enough to flick your clit?  Tut tut, Holly.”

Holly pouted and whined.  “It’s not enough when I’m this excited.  You know how much I love it inside me, because you do too.”

“Okay, Horny Blue Agate, quit fussing, here comes the deep dick you so desperately need,” Carnie laughed, clambering off Chip’s lap.  She put her hands behind her head and pumped her hips forward as her form flickered and changed, popping out a large cock that looked ridiculously big on her chubby little frame.  “Boom!”

“It’s not nice to make fun of me when I’m desperate,” Holly said, still pouting.

“By  _ that _ rule I’d  _ never _ get to make fun of you,” Carnie smirked.  She stepped forward and poked Holly’s nose with her forefinger.  “Who’s a desperate hoe, then?”

“Me,” Holly grumbled.

“Whose pussy’s always dripping?”

“Mine.”

“Who’s gonna beg me real sweetly to fuck her like she needs?”

Holly sighed theatrically and rolled onto her back, lifting and spreading her legs, flipping back the sodden front flap of her loincloth to expose her flushed, glistening-wet pussy.  Chip felt her cock give a little twitch of interest despite its overall contentment.  _ “Pwease, _ darling Carnie, fuck me nice and deep and hard,” Holly begged, and fluttered her eyelashes.  

Carnie snickered appreciatively.  “You ham,” she said, and happily clambered on, cramming her cock in with a grunt and making Holly squeal.  It was always funny as well as hot to see Carnie fuck Holly like this; the difference in their sizes meant her face was smushed against the underside of Holly’s breasts and she just kind of clung with her arms around Holly’s waist, thrusting hard.  Holly was moaning frantically, her voice shaking with each thrust.

“Wow, she  _ really _ needed that,” Skinny said, slinging her arm around Chip’s shoulders and leaning her cheek against her head affectionately.  “Is Carnie  _ growling?” _

“She might be,” Chip said.  

“Hey,” Skinny said quietly, and turned to kiss the top of Chip’s head.  “You’re doing great. Seeing you get a little more confident is so cool.”

“I was worried you would think I was being really dumb about it,” Chip admitted.  “Or… I dunno, it’d hurt your feelings that I didn’t do that for you. Have a whole… breakthrough thingie.”

“Whatcha mean  _ for _ me?” Skinny asked.  “If you needed Holly to be your role model, that’s fine.  Everyone can do something different, right?” She ruffled Chip’s hair gently.  “You’re special to me no matter what.”

“I like your flower titties,” said Chip, tracing the daisy petals with one finger.

“Yeah, I think I’ll quit wearing a shirt and just show ‘em off like this all the time,” Skinny chuckled.  “Think I could pull it off?”

“I don’t know, Holly’s the one who rocks the half-naked outfits,” Chip said.  Skinny tickled her belly and she curled up giggling helplessly.

“Whaddaya call this outfit?  With your pants round your knees?  Let’s get you outta these. Maybe Kay’ll come round and draw something pretty on  _ your _ titties.”  She tussled Chip out of her uniform and gave her a swat on the bottom for good measure before wrapping her up in her long arms and legs, sitting behind her and resting her chin on Chip’s shoulder as they watched Holly and Carnelian fuck.  Chip stared avidly, enchanted by the way Holly’s body rocked and bounced, by the ecstatic expression on her face (a bonus with Carnie, she couldn’t kiss Holly and fuck her at the same time so she didn’t block your view), by the glimpses she got between Carnie’s legs of thick crimson cock pumping in her dripping wet pussy — and was there a hint of milk beading on the tips of Holly’s nipples?  Skinny was idly playing with  _ her _ nipples, pinching and rolling them till they peeped out of their puffy nests.

“You’re pricking up again,” Skinny murmured.  “Wanna fuck her after Carnie finishes? You like ploughing into a big creamy load from the last Gem, right?  Feeling it squish out round your cock?”

“Mmm… I love watching her so much.  Look how much she just loves fucking!  Look how strong and soft and hot she is!  Look how bad she  _ needs _ it.  Isn’t that just the most beautiful thing?”

Skinny chuckled.  “Holly’s having fun getting fucked, you’re having fun  _ watching _ her get fucked, and I’m having fun watching  _ you _ watching  _ her _ get fucked.  Layer on layer.”  She kissed Chip’s shoulder.  “Can I stick around to watch  _ you _ get fucked?  You want it to be public, right?”

“Um… yeah… if you really wanna see it.”

“Oh, c’mon, modest is the  _ last  _ thing you should be.  You watch how Holly does it.  Think you’ll make noises like that?”  Holly’s moans were building into throaty cries and she was arching her body, digging in her heels and pushing Carnie up with her hips, a midnight blue flush rushing from her breasts up to her face.  Carnie clung to her, gasping and whooping, and spared one hand long enough to slap the side of Holly’s bouncing ass. The noise was attracting attention; Gems were gathering and murmuring in approval.

“Hey, I wondered who was gonna cave and fuck her.”

“I felt a little sorry for her, but I  _ love _ hearing her beg.”

“She must be so juicy wet.”

“Pound that pussy, Carnie!”

“Look at her go!”

“I call next!”

“Hey, get over here, Holly’s started the gangbang!”

Cheers went up as Holly bucked and came, her face alight with passion and joy that lasted as Carnie rode her to a climax.  Holly cradled her a few moments after that, both of them panting and contentedly sighing, before Carnie reared up, playing to the crowd, and accepted their applause with a broad grin and hands cupped behind her ears.  She dismounted and lay down sprawled on the grass, leaving Holly flushed and giggling, proudly displaying herself to her admirers.

“You ready for another?” Bee asked, jostling to the front of the gathering crows.  “I called dibs!”

“Liar,  _ I  _ called dibs,” protested Kitty.

“Arm-wrestle you for her asshole.”  

“Oh, you want her ass?  No problem, I’m all about the pussy.  You can handle us both, right Holls?”

“I will  _ gladly _ handle you both,” Holly said, sitting up with an effort and shaking back her hair, which was more loose than in buns by now, “but I just have to do something first.  Chippy, baby, how are you doing?”

“Oh!  I’m fine.  I’m having a great time watching you,” Chip said, a little startled to be noticed.

“She really is,” Skinny said.  “Behold this bone.” She wiggled Chip’s erection from side to side with her fingers.

“And it’s beautiful,” Holly said.  “I just wondered if Sharky had come back for you and I hadn’t noticed while I was preoccupied.”

“Has Sharky ever in her  _ life _ arrived somewhere without everyone noticing?” Skinny asked.  “She’s gotta make an  _ entrance.” _

“True, because talent like this commands attention,” Sharky said, pushing past a happily masturbating Amethyst and striding up as if on cue.  In her hand she had a hollowed out melon half-shell brimming with pink juice, and she bent to offer it to Chip. “Told you I’d take care of you,” she purred, and winked in a way that made Chip’s tummy flutter.  She took the shell and drank deeply, finding it sweet and tangy but mostly glad to have something to  _ do _ to hide her rising embarrassment.  

“Whaddya mean, take care of her?” asked Ellie, who was ogling Holly and had overheard.  

“Yeah, what’s going on there?  Is there  _ gossip?” _ Exes asked eagerly, popping up behind her.  

“There’s gossip!”

“What kinda gossip?”

“Sharky and Chip are in loooooooooove, pass it on!”

“Oh, bullshit.”

“Hey, stranger things have happened!  Like, need I remind you we’re all lined up to raw our Agate?”

“What’s the deal, Chippy?  You going after big game now?”

“Is Sharky letting you  _ fuck _ her?”

“Back off, you’re embarrassing her,” Sharky growled, glaring around.  Chip’s feelings were a startling mixture of embarrassment, yes, burning-cheeks singing-ears embarrassment, but also excitement and a kind of pride, and a boost to her arousal that made her cock twitch and release a glistening drop of precum.  

Holly was kneeling beside her and whispered, “Chippy, what do you want to do?  If this is too much, too soon I’ll shoo them away, but what  _ do _ you want to do?”

“No,” Chip whispered back, “I feel really good but — but I’m still shy, I don’t know if I can tell them all — I mean, can you kind of… make the announcement?  That I…” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “That I’m in training to make me into a submissive slut who gets fucked by the whole garrison.” A rush of tingling heat went through her saying the words, and she felt Skinny hug her from behind.  

“I am  _ so _ proud of you,” Holly said, and kissed her deeply.  “I’ll tell everyone now. But if I get anything wrong, you have to pipe up!  Just whisper it to me if you need to.” She pressed another kiss against Chip’s flushed cheek, got up and turned to face the gathered, highly inquisitive crowd.  

“Hush now!” she called out.  “Everyone quiet and listening, because I have something  _ very _ important that I’m  _ very _ happy to announce.  No, stop playing with yourselves and listen.  Very well, we’ll all wait for Rosie, shall we?” she added, to which Rosie, furiously frigging herself, held up a finger of her free hand to ask for one moment.  Holly waited, arms folded and eyebrows raised, till Rosie groaned with satisfaction and relaxed, her head hanging forward. After a moment she raised it with an unrepentant smile and gave Holly the thumbs up, all good.  “That was very naughty,” Holly said, trying and failing to sound severe as the crowd laughed.

“Yes!  Tell me I’m a bad girl.”

“Later if you’re lucky,” Holly snapped.  She clapped her hands briskly to bring back everyone’s attention.  “I’m sure you’ve all noticed how much my sweet pet Chip likes to watch me take on all comers.”  There was an uneven chorus of amused agreement. “Well, that wasn’t just voyeurism. It was also learning by observation.  A kind of apprenticeship, if you will! I’ve been training her in private and although she’s a little shy still, she’s making great progress.  You know her best as a sweet, energetic little lover who gives her all to satisfy her partner with deep, vigorous penetration. Lately she’s been embracing her receptive, submissive side, and I want you all to encourage her!”

“Whaaaa?”

“Oh, cool!”

“You played that close to the chest, Chippy.”

“A slutty apprentice _ Chip.” _

“I knew there was something going on!  Called it!”

“Oh, you did not.”

“Did so!  I’m like a Sapphire.  I just  _ know.” _

“ _ Any _ way,” said Holly, “Chip has chosen Sharky to help with the next stage of her training.  The  _ ultimate _ goal is to be able to take all of you like yours truly, but I think Sharky is probably plenty just for now.  Is that right, baby?”

Chip was feeling light-headed with relief — no one was mocking her! they actually seemed to think it was pretty neat! — but she managed to grin and nod.

“I like the sound of this,” said Sharky, nudging Skinny, who scooted away from Chip with a good grace.  “You back off, Miss Legs, I wanna get busy training Chip.” 

“So is this a private function or do we all get to watch?” asked Exes.

“And more importantly right now, do I still get to fuck Holly?” asked Kitty.  

“Shh, darling, I promise, but be patient,” said Holly.  “Chippy, would you like to save Sharky for a time when you can be more private?  Or do you want to try here and now?”

Chip drew a deep breath.  “Here and now!” She felt Sharky’s large, warm hand slide up her back, under her hair, and grasp the nape of her neck, making her shiver.

“Good girl,” Sharky purred by her cheek.  “You know what to do?”

“Uhh…”  Chip could feel pressure from Sharky’s hand, guiding her head forward and down.  The others were murmuring in anticipation, sounding really keen to see her give it up.  She lowered herself onto her knees and elbows, raising her bottom towards Sharky. Someone whistled and she found she needed to shut her eyes; once she couldn’t see them seeing  _ her _ everything was easier.  She felt Sharky’s hand slide down her back, then both hands cup, squeeze and knead her buttocks, fingers digging in hard where she was chubby, and her breathing quickened.

“Oh, this is a nice little ass.  I can always tell. You’re gonna lose your mind for how good it feels when I’m fucking you.  You ready?”

Chip felt Sharky’s thumbs pressing her buttocks apart, exposing her anus, tugging lightly to stretch the mouth of it.  “I — I’ll try…”

“No, no  _ trying. _  You’ve gotta want it.  You’re gonna beg me to do it.  You’ll see.”

“I’m sorry!”

“Don’t be sorry.  Means I get to do one of my favourite things.”  

Chip gasped sharply as something warm and wet slid up the cleft of her ass.  Sharky smacked her lips and chuckled, and a chorus of whoops went up. 

“Eat her ass!”

“I bet she’s sooo tight.”

“Aw, her little face is cute!”

Chip hid her face in her arms as Sharky’s tongue flicked up and down between her buttocks, closing in on the tender puckered ring.  Sharky grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back up. “No hiding,” she growled. “I had to teach Holly that too.” Then she was licking again, lapping at Chip’s snug little hole until it tingled and throbbed and she whimpered aloud, her hips shaking.  The firm tip of Sharky’s tongue prodded and pushed, swirling inward and fluttering rapidly up and down, and the whimpering swelled into a loud moan. One hand moved between her thighs, wrapped around her erection as it bounced stiffly against her tummy, and began tugging it rhythmically downward.  Everything from the stretching mouth of her anus through the root of her cock to the dripping tip pulsed with almost unbearable pleasure, and she couldn’t have stopped the moans bursting out of her if she had wanted to. 

“Whoa!”

“That’s a really sexy voice all of a sudden.”

“Think she learned  _ that _ from Holly?”

“This is  _ all _ Chip.”  There was Holly’s voice, near at hand, and she sounded proud.  “Just — ah! — look how gorgeous she is.” Her voice was shaking, too, trembling the way it did when you pounded her hard, and when Chip turned her head a bit and peeked she found Holly just beside her, lying on her side with one leg up and Kitty kneeling astride the other thigh, hugging Holly’s raised leg against her own body as she pumped into her.  Holly’s breasts and tummy bounced with each deep stroke and she was panting just as hard as Chip was. Seeing her like that set off a little explosion of love and need low in Chip’s belly, and her desire to emulate spurred her past any remaining nerves.

“Sha — Sharky!”

“Hrrm?”

“Fuck me!” Her voice burst out louder than she’d expected.

Sharky gave her ass a final sucking kiss and lifted her head; Chip felt her spreading the opening of her anus with her fingertips.  “What’s that you say, baby slut?”

“Fuck me!   _ Please _ fuck me!  Push your big hard dick into my tight little ass and fuck me till you blow!”

Whistles and cheers broke out, and a few cries of “Get it, Chippy!”

“Told you you’d beg.”  Chip couldn’t see Sharky’s face but she could  _ hear _ the smug grin.   “Get ready, ‘cuz you’re not gonna be the same after this.”

“Chip,” Holly panted, and Chip looked to find her holding out one hand, palm up.  She grabbed it and held tight as she felt the hot blunt head of Sharky’s cock pressing into her slick, wet asshole.  Her body put up a weak spasm of resistance and then it popped through, thick and hard and sliding in deep, pushing another long low moan out of her.  The sound was almost drowned by the whoops from the audience. 

“How’s  _ that?” _ Sharky asked, and slapped her ass sharply.

“Yes!”  Her legs were shaking and she had to slide her knees farther apart, but she also felt an urgent need to arch her back and tip up her tail.  It hurt a bit because Sharky was so  _ big,  _ it was such a  _ stretch,  _ but it was so good she might even start screaming the way Holly sometimes did.

“Wow,” someone chuckled, “look at Sharky’s blissed-out face.”

“She’s  _ extra _ warm,” Sharky breathed.  “Oooh… Somebody’s gonna get  _ pop _ -ularrr… but I get to go  _ first.” _  She gripped Chip’s hips tightly and began to really thrust.

Chip panted, her body bouncing with Sharky’s strong strokes, fierce dirty pleasure punching up into her tummy.  She could feel Holly squeezing her hand and hear the crowd chanting encouragement and the last bits of shyness were falling away as she tossed back her hair and the panting rose into husky gasps.  

“Now you’re gettin’ it,” Sharky grunted, her hips slapping against Chip’s bottom.  “You’re hitting your rhythm, right?”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh.”

“Fuck, I wish I’da known you wanted this.  Little cutie like you? Bubble butt like yours?  Nearly as bad of a waste as Holly!”

“Hope you’re ready to catch up!” someone yelled.  

“Yeah, Sharky’s gotta get tired  _ sometime.” _

“Any time, okay?  Hit me up!”

“She’s so  _ bouncy.” _

“Did I hear Holly was coaching her?  I  _ need _ some of that.”

“Chippy takes it in the ass, pass it on!”

Chip’s body was burning, pulsing, each deep thrust pushing a sharp cry out of her.  She was reaching that crest she’d ridden with Holly, pleasure so intense she seemed to be on the breathless edge of orgasm for stroke after stroke after stroke, until she tumbled over it with a joyful wail.  Sharky was pumping faster as she slumped down, moaning weakly, and her fingers dug into Chip’s chubby hips. She gave a fierce grunt as her hips snapped forward, grinding in with her last spasms. After all that even she seemed to be tired; she hunched forward, looped her arm under Chip’s belly and held her close as she rolled onto her side, spooning them.  She was considerate enough to have rolled them to face Holly, who by now was being vigorously buggered by Bee while Exes rode her face. 

“And now,” Sharky purred against her neck, “you get to just relax and watch Holly Blue do what she does best.”  She kissed Chip’s shoulder softly and heavily. “You do it pretty great too.”

“Yeah?”  Chip wriggled contentedly, not yet used to feeling this full.  She couldn’t stop smiling; everything was warm and lush and squishy soft, and there was a big rosy glow filling her belly and chest.  “Thank you.”


	26. Chapter 26

Holly was dizzy with pleasure, and with a little bit of a head rush as she sat up from lying sprawled on the grass, pulled up by two strong Gems each grasping one of her hands.  Her clothes had been torn off a while ago, though she had gained a few garlands of flowers flung over her head and around her shoulders like tributes.

“C’mon,” said Vee, tugging at her hand, “Peek’n me wanna take you swimming.”

“You’ll love it,” said Peek, “nice and cool.”

“I’m just a little giddy, my loves, give me a moment.”  She made an ineffectual effort to finger-comb her tumbled hair, looking around her.  Everywhere around her Gems were cuddling, canoodling or just fucking, the soft balmy air heavy with the scent of their hot bodies and filled with the sound of their moans, grunts and laughter.  It was an idyllic sight and she was inclined to think that the Earth-like surroundings really were making it sweeter for them. Just over there Sharky was spoiling Chip, stroking her back and braiding her hair, occasionally spicing the sweetness with whispered comments that made Chip blush, giggle and squirm.  Chip looked  _ so _ happy and Holly found her feelings were a curious mixture of loving pride, a faint, wistful jealousy at not being the focus of the happiness and a deep satisfaction at having  _ facilitated _ it.  

“Come on, Holly-dolly.  We wanna fool around.” Vee crouched down beside her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, nuzzling at her cheek.

“Can you blame us, when you’re looking all pretty with your flowers?”  Peek asked, blinking innocently. “Or when we’ve been watching you ride every dick that volunteered.”  She knelt in front of Holly, nudging her legs further apart while Vee kissed her, and cupped her hand over her tender mound.  “She’s so  _ wet, _ Vee.  Slick and slippery all over her thighs.”

“C’mon… we can sit in the shallows and scissor, won’t that feel great?” Vee murmured.  She slipped her hand down to cup and squeeze Holly’s breast, but loosened her hold when Holly flinched and gasped.  “You okay? Did I get you on a hickey or something?”

“No, I’m just… just sensitive, I think.  Maybe a little bit overstimulated?” There had been quite a few moments when pressure on her breasts had made them feel sore, but she hadn’t wanted it to spoil the fun.  It was getting a bit annoying.

“Mmm… they are pretty swollen.  Look at these big hard nipples.”  Vee gently rolled one between her thumb and forefinger, admiring its deep colour.

“Holly with the pretty titties,” sighed Peek, leaning in to kiss Holly’s mouth in turn, her tongue sweeping between her lips as her fingertips slipped between her labia.  “And the soft creamy pussy. You must be feeling  _ so _ good.”

“Oh, I am, I  _ am. _  Everyone is so sweet to me.”

“Wow.  I shouldn’t be surprised but you are like  _ really _ full.  Look at all this goosh, Vee.”  She was sliding her fingers in and out, coaxing out the thick load the last Gem had left behind.  

“You fuckin’ legend, Holls,” purred Vee, and Holly gazed down at the glistening white pooling in Peek’s palm as her fingers slid between her swollen lips with pride.  

“Are we in a  _ big _ hurry to go swimming,” Holly asked hopefully, “or could there be a little fuck here first?”  They both laughed at her gently, and Peek wiped her hand against Holly’s damp mound. 

“We’ll never get her  _ up _ if we fuck her here,” she said.  “She’s naughty.”

“So thirsty.  Oh hey! We should get her some juice.”

“No thank you,” said Holly, shaking her head.

“I don’t get that,” said Vee.  “How come you’re fine with swallowing, like,  _ gallons _ of cum but not with a little fruit juice?”

“If it’s from a Gem’s body I can absorb it in the energy of  _ my _ body,” Holly said.  “If it’s an organic liquid then sooner or later I’ll have to…”  She lowered her voice.  _ “Pee.” _

They both laughed again.  “But peeing’s  _ fun!” _

“Yeah, it feels good.  You haven’t even tried it yet.”

“You know it feels a little bit like squirting, right?  Not intense like that but it’s nice, especially when you’ve been holding it in and it’s a  _ big _ relief,” said Vee.  

“There’s no  _ need _ for it,” Holly protested.  

“Oh, like there’s a need for  _ this? _  We’re not reproducing here,” Peek chuckled.  “Exactly the same reason, we like seeing what weird stuff we can do with our bodies and it feels good when we do.  And there’s eating, too! You wouldn’t have to swallow, you could just taste and spit. Fruit is  _ so _ good, it’s sweet and juicy and tangy and some of it’s crisp and some is really soft and tender, and it gives you all these great feelings in your mouth.”

“Never mind that for now,” said Vee.  “I figure she’ll get interested sooner or later if we don’t push.  Plus you’re making her all pouty. On your feet, soldier.” Together they pulled Holly up and scooped her onto a chair of their joined hands.

“Ooh, I get carried?” Holly asked, tickled.

“Yeah, we’re your mini-palanquin.  Cool, huh?”

“Very cool.  Onward!” She looped her arms around their shoulders for balance.

“Haha, Holly said ‘cool.’”

“We’re rubbing off on her!”  They carried her to the edge of the lagoon, where there were already Gems splashing around, floating, ducking under the water and coming up to spit out plumes of water.  

“One…” said Peek, and they swung her back a little.

“What?”

“Two…” said Vee, and they swung her forward.

“Threeeeeee…” said Peek and they swung her further back and Holly cried out “No no no!” just as they both yelled “HEAVE!” and charged into the water with her.  They crashed down together with a colossal splash of cool water and Holly pulled them both under with her in revenge. When she let them go they surfaced, cackling, and she splashed them as hard as she could with her hands.

“I thought you were going to  _ throw _ me!”

“Who, us?  Never!”

“We’re  _ good _ Gems!”  

“And the water feels great, right?” asked Vee, pushing back the wet curtain of hair that covered her face.  “I know we work hard to keep it all nice in here and  _ mostly _ all I need is to see that the humans are doing good, but it’s also pretty sweet to get to enjoy it ourselves.”

“Remember that lake we camped by for a couple days defending the supply line?” Peek asked.  “Although the water there was super cold. Gave me the pointy nips.”

“Oh!  Oh! Show Holly the cool hair thing we invented there.”

“Oh yeah!”  They splashed back a bit to where the water was just hip deep and stood up, bending forward with their hair hanging in the water.  On the count of three they both snapped upright and whipped back their heads so that their trailing wet hair flicked a shining circular swoop of water through the air before it slapped onto their shoulders.

“Woo!”

“We can still do it!”

“Dude, why don’t we do that in the bath  _ all the time?” _

“It is like  _ ridiculous  _ fun.”

“Holly, did we look awesome?” They turned to her, bright-faced and eager, and she felt a pang of love in her chest; these dear, lively, silly, enthusiastic Gems.

“You looked  _ fabulous,”  _ she said.  “How do you do that?  Do you think I could?”

“Yeah!  C’mere, let us show you.”

She couldn’t do it very well at first but after a few more tries she’d mastered the snapping motion and other Quartzes were wading over or wandering down from the clearing wanting to try, and Peek and Vee encouraged her to teach what she’d just learned.  Soon she had a little class around her flipping their hair majestically and sometimes slapping each other in the face with it, accidentally on purpose.

“This trick is dumb,” Skinny said.  She was crouching on a rock watching the hair-flippers, and she tossed her own short, fluffy hair as she got up, long legs unfolding to her full height.  

“Oh, you just wish you’d thought of it,” scoffed Vee.

“I know a better trick,” said Skinny, setting her hands on her hips.  “Who wants to see it?”

“Oh shit!” someone cried gleefully.  “Skinny’s party trick!”

“Do it, do it!” yelled Exes.  

“What’s Skinny’s party trick?” Holly asked, squeezing water out of her hair.

“You haven’t seen it yet?  Guys! Holly’s never seen Skinny’s party trick!” Peek shouted.

“No way!”

“Then clearly I  _ gotta _ do it,” said Skinny with a sly smile.  “Gather round, you big doofs — and the luscious Holly, of course.”  She hopped from her rock to the bank and picked a spot in front of a pretty flowering shrub as a backdrop.  The others waded dripping from the lagoon and plunked themselves down to sit or lie on the ground in a rough half-circle.  Peek and Vee still clearly considered they had dibs on Holly for the time being, and pulled her along to sit between them.

Skinny bowed gracefully to her audience as if she were about to dance to entertain a Diamond’s court.  “Distinguished guests,” she said, “allow me, please, to demonstrate one of the greatest tricks known to Gemkind, a feat of acrobatic skill often attempted but seldom perfected.”

“Get on with it,” yelled someone at the back.  

“Quiet, you.  You can’t hurry Art.  Okay! I’ll require the assistance of a volunteer from the audience.”  Hands flew up; Holly was amused to see Peek was among them and bouncing on her knees, wanting to be picked.

“Oh my, how curious that only Gems from Beta are volunteering,” said Skinny, tapping her chin.

“Favouritism!” yelled Gee.

“You know it.  I’ll take… hmm… the lovely lady with the distinctive marking across her lips.”

“Woohoo!”  Kitty jumped up and pumped her fists in the air, then scampered over to join Skinny.

“You know what I need you to do, right?” Skinny asked her with a lazy smile.  She wrapped her arms around Kitty’s shoulders and bent her head a little to kiss her, a deep, slow, tongue-pumping kiss.  

“That’s not a trick,” Holly whispered to Vee.  

“Shh, this isn’t the good part.  I mean, it’s pretty good, but yeah.”  

Skinny had slipped one hand down and was holding Kitty’s cock, rubbing it into full hardness.  So far Holly still couldn’t see the trick, although obviously giving Kitty a kiss and a friendly handjob was well within the spirit of the party.  She felt pleasantly cool now, her skin refreshed by the water and all the stickiness gone. She shuffled closer to Vee and rested her head on her shoulder, and Vee chuckled and wrapped her arm around Holly’s waist.  Peek consoled herself for not being chosen by flopping down and laying her head in Holly’s lap, and Holly idly stroked her tumbled damp hair. 

“Okay,” said Skinny, “time to get down.”

“Yeah!” cried Kitty.  Clearly she was amped about her role in the trick, whatever it was.  She plunked down to sit on her bottom on the grass and Skinny stepped forward to stand astride her lap, planting her feet and sliding her long fingers into Kitty’s hair, pulling her head forward to nuzzle between Skinny’s thighs.  Scattered cheers went up.

“Still not seeing the trick,” Holly whispered.  “She’s just eating her out.”

“Shush!”

“Ooh,” sighed Skinny, “I feel my powers working.  If I’m gonna do the magic, I need to be  _ real _ wet.”  Kitty could be heard giggling a little, muffled as she kept her tongue busy and slid her hands up Skinny’s thighs to grip her hips.  “Oh  _ my _ ,” said Skinny, “y’all watching?  Here we go!” She set her feet firmly, swept her arms up and back, left then right, and as they reached the limit of their arc she followed through with her whole body, bending backward what looked impossibly far.  Holly gasped at her grace and strength, and the audience whooped and stamped their feet. That wasn’t the climax of the trick, though; that became clear as Skinny’s hands reached the ground. That brought her face to face, as it were, with Kitty’s stiffly upright erection.  There was no break in the arc; she simply opened her mouth and took it in, at which the audience gleefully lost their minds.

“Oh my  _ stars!” _ Holly exclaimed. 

_ “That’s _ the trick,” Vee laughed.

([illustration by evilsnotbag](https://evilsnotbag.tumblr.com/post/172430151560/jaspers-in-the-zoo-skinny-is-flexible))

“That’s so  _ impressive!”   _ She couldn’t take her eyes off them, particularly Skinny with her eyes closed, her tongue sliding in and out against the head of Kitty’s cock and her throat working as she swallowed.  She hadn’t been kidding about getting wet; there were glistening strands of liquid dripping from Kitty’s chin and drizzling onto her breasts. As they moved in rhythm, the onlookers were clapping and chanting their names, until they blurred into “Kinny” and “Skitty.”  The  _ control _ was extraordinary; Holly could see the thin whipcord muscles standing out in Skinny’s arms as she pushed herself up and down, but she didn’t slip or so much as shake.  A vermilion flush was filling her face and climbing the column of her neck, and she was breathing hard through her nose, faster as she rose and fell. Her arms stayed firm but her hips began to quiver, her narrow buttocks squeezing together, and Kitty slid her hands down Skinny’s legs to grip her ankles and hold her feet down.  Holly felt Vee slide her hand from her waist down over her tummy and parted her thighs, letting it slip down to pet her pussy, and put her hand in Vee’s lap to do the same, finding her warm and slick, pushing eagerly against her fingers.

In just a few moments Kitty came; it overflowed from Skinny’s lips to a deafening cheer from the crowd.  Kitty fell back on her elbows, gasping; her hands loosened on Skinny’s ankles and for a moment Holly was worried she would fall.  She was underestimating her, though; Skinny gave a smooth, nimble push and her legs rose in the air, kicking over the same way she had swept back her arms; for just a moment she stood on her hands, toes pointed to outer space, and then she rolled on over, releasing Kitty’s cock from her mouth and completing her flip, finishing standing tall with her arms raised in a flourish.  She was panting, her face still red, but she looked proud and delighted as she took bow after bow, soaking up the cheers and applause. 

“For my next trick,” she shouted over the noise, “someone come finish me off!”  She was promptly mobbed by volunteers.

“I have to congratulate her once she’s done with them,” Holly said.  “I had no idea she was so talented! Well, in  _ that _ way.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty awesome,” said Peek, sitting up.  “You really never saw that one before?”

“Really never!  There’s still so much I have to learn about all of you.  I’m sure you’ll go on surprising me for a long time.”

“Yeah?  I wonder what kind of surprises you’ve got in store for  _ us _ ,” Vee said, still stroking Holly’s outer lips.  

“I really doubt I have any left,” Holly chuckled.  “That feels so nice…”

“You still want more, don’tcha?” said Vee.  “Nothing stops you.”

“Well, the water was so refreshing.  Didn’t you think so?” Holly turned to kiss her, breathing softly against her lips.  “And we both got excited watching the show. You’re just opening up like a blossom. What have you done here?  It feels different.” She shifted to look between Vee’s legs.

“I thought it’d be fun if it really had petals like a flower.”  Vee spread her legs to show it off; the tender mouth of her cunt was circled by many small rounded pinkish-purple petals, shifting, fluttering and puffing as Holly traced her fingertip over them.  

“That looks  _ beautiful. _  Aren’t you clever?”

“They can close up like a bud too.”  Vee grunted faintly with effort and the petals swirled in snugly around Holly’s finger, stroking it like soft little tongues.

“That feels fucking  _ amazing _ on my cock,” Peek said, leaning over with her chin on Holly’s shoulder.  “I’d be lucky she’s my special friend anyway, but when she keeps coming up with fancy treats like this I feel really spoiled.”  Vee beamed at her and popped out the tip of her tongue.

“This is what I mean about surprises,” Holly said, turning her finger and admiring the glistening petals.  “I don’t even  _ think _ of doing things like this.”

“Hey, you stick to a simple classic.  It’s popular for a reason. Let’s try this…”  Vee shifted her position, lifting Holly’s leg over her hip, wiggling in to press her pussy against Holly’s.  “Ahh… see, that’s good. Feel ‘em moving?”

“Oh  _ my… _ they  _ ripple.”   _ Holly rolled her hips against Vee’s in a slow undulation, her breathing shallow and light.  “That feels  _ delicious.” _

“Yeah… they’re real sensitive, too… can you hold my leg, here?   _ Yes…” _  Vee rocked against her, her flushed face intent with concentration.  She got into a little difficulty, having two arms but wanting three to let her hold Holly’s hip, prop herself up, and rub her own breasts at the same time.  That seemed to be more than she could co-ordinate at once and it made her rhythm stuttery.

“Hey, don’t hurt yourself.”  Peek shuffled round behind her, supporting her back with her body, and wrapped her arms around her, kissing her neck.  Her hands covered Vee’s small breasts and kneaded them firmly, and a hiss of pleasure escaped between Vee’s teeth as she relaxed against her friend.  Holly found it easy enough just to lean on one elbow; all her own attention was focused on the sweet tingling where Vee’s pussy rubbed hers and the hot pulse deeper in her cunt.  They rocked together, and it deepened and sweetened, Vee’s little petals slipping and sliding against her thick puffy folds. 

“I can hear you two’s lips smacking,” Peek said.  “Juicy pussies.”

“Yeah?” Vee breathed.  “You want us?”

“When you get done with Holly I’ll fuck you silly.”

“You promise?”  Vee turned her head and they kissed.

Holly rocked her own head back, gazing up at the glowing artificial sky, her eyes slipping closed so the golden light glowed through their lids leaf-green.  The pleasure grew as she rubbed against Vee and she let herself slip into a little fantasy, Earth not as a devastated world of failure but as a paradisical garden for loving Gems, where the warm air kissed your skin and the soft grass released its fragrance as you rolled on it, wrapped up in your lovers’ arms.  Such a lovely idea, and the delicious tension was growing deep down low. She could feel Vee clutching at her hip, fingers slipping and digging in, and hear her panting, whimpering, stammering out her name. A joyful pulse rushed up inside her and she cried out, grinding against Vee until it peaked and burst, and she subsided on the grass, loose-limbed and giddy.

As she lay there breathing hard, she felt Vee scrambling up over her and opened her eyes just in time to see her shining face just before she kissed her.  It was a clumsy, giggling, nose-rubbing kiss, both of them still exhilarated and bubbling over. “Are you done? I’m not done. Let’s not be done,” Vee panted.  

“Of course I’m not  _ done. _  What a silly idea!  I’m just hitting my stride.”

“Good.”  Another deep kiss, and it felt like Vee was getting comfortable, her thighs against Holly’s, pushing them higher, their bellies and mounds pressing and rubbing together.  “Wanna try something with Peek and me?”

“Yes please.  How will she be joining us?”

“Peek, c’mon!”  Vee glanced back over her shoulder, and Peek came into Holly’s view, leaning over Vee’s back, looking flushed and eager.

“Hey Holly,” she said, “I know Sharky does it for you all the time and you probably kind of think it’s her thing, but you know  _ I _ invented double dick, right?”

“Well, I heard you got  _ stuck _ that way, but yes, my darling, I know it’s your creation.”  It was so endearing that Peek seemed keen for Holly’s acknowledgement.

“Well,  _ I _ use it different from her.  She uses it to fill your ass and your pussy together, I like to use it to fuck two pussies at once.”

“Yeah, yeah!”  Vee bounced on Holly excitedly.  “Wanna get fucked  _ together?” _

“You are so  _ cute.” _  Holly kissed her nose.  She could hear Peek laughing, feel her hand stroking both their vulvas, tender and wet.

“You know,” Peek said, “Vee likes to watch you taking it and have me do the same thing to her.  Matching you, feeling what you’re feeling. She’s got a real thing about it.”

“Don’t tell her  _ that,” _ Vee exclaimed, her cheeks purpling.  

“C’mon, I just want her to know why you’re so into this.  It’s  _ sweet. _  You got a  _ crush. _  It feels special, right?”

“Yeah,” Vee mumbled.

“I think that’s  _ absolutely _ sweet,” Holly said.  She wrapped her arms around Vee, rocking her hips, feeling Peek’s fingers slip in, dip in her well and then slide up to Vee’s.  “Let’s have this together, mmm? Let’s feel the same thing.”

“Oh fuck yes,” Vee said in a rush, and kissed her, sliding in her tongue, swirling it against Holly’s, and together they felt Peek entering, pushing in deep.  Holly felt Vee’s mouth trembling, her breath fluttering and gusting. 

“Isn’t that good?” she whispered.   _ “So _ full.   _ So _ hard.”

“Hnnnnh.”  Vee pushed against her.  

“Ohhhh, this is great,” Peek breathed.  “You know you both squeezed down together.”

“Together,” Vee sighed.

“Together,” Holly purred, stroking Vee’s smooth, surging back.  “Oh, thank you for sharing, sweet Vee.”

She heard voices, the reliable admiring audience.  “Hey, look how they’re doing it!”

“Skinny, they’ve got a party trick too!”

“Less acrobatic, more friggy.”

Vee was moaning as she ground her mound against Holly’s, a sweet sound punctuated by gasps of delight and little breathless chuckles.  “Fuck! Yes…”

“You’re getting  _ just  _ what I’m getting,” Holly panted, “that deep hot surge pumping in your pussy, oh, feel  _ that!   _ We’re so  _ wet,  _ we’re so  _ hot,  _ she’s fucking us so  _ hard.”   _ She was feeling Vee’s laughter, too, and it was rising in her to match, panting giggles along with the sweet heat in her cunt.

“Silly bitches,” said Peek with great affection, thrusting faster, her hips slapping against Vee’s bottom.

“Ha!  You love us.”

“You love us!”  Holly felt Vee’s body tensing, the motion of her hips growing into a frantic tight pumping, her mouth dropping open as she peaked.  She held her close, on the verge herself, pumping back as Peek’s thrusts deepened, quivering and gasping with delight.

They lay cuddling and nuzzling until the weight of two Amethysts on top of her was really too much and she had to grumble about it a little.  They peeled themselves away from her reluctantly, with parting kisses, and she had a few moments to catch her breath before one of the Gems circled around them stroked her cheek and asked, “Want some more, Holly-dolly?”

“Oh, yes!”

They closed in around her, lifting her between them, kissing her; there were hands on her breasts, her thighs, her belly, she was being passed from one to another, praised and teased and stroked and pinched till she screamed.  She was sandwiched between strong, sweating bodies that rubbed and ground against her and pumped inside her, taking eager, greedy pleasure in her body.

“Look at her  _ go.” _

“You’re awesome, Holls.”

“You love that, don’tcha?”

“Oh, Mama, that feels so  _ good!” _

“Ooh, fuck…”

“Mama’s pussy’s so  _ full.” _

“My turn with her asshole.”

“Don’t push, she’s got enough for  _ all _ of us.”

“She won’t squirt if you do it like  _ that, _ get your finger  _ here.” _

“There she goes!”

“You okay, baby?  Need a break? Okay, just tell us when you do.”

“Mmm… right there…”

“Love you, Holly.”

"Love you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skinny's party trick was inspired by evilsnotbag's picture; I liked it so much I decided it had to go into the story.


	27. Chapter 27

After a long, exhausted post-orgy nap on the grass, Gems began to stir, to wake one another, stretching and yawning and ambling down to the water to bathe again.  They sat on the rocks finger-combing and braiding one another’s hair, peacefully humming in low rumbles. Holly was the last to wake as the humming gradually reached her and brought her to the surface.  She was lying with her head pillowed on Jay’s lap; the first thing she saw as she opened her eyes was Jay’s hand moving to brush the hair from her cheek, the second her face hovering over her.

“Hey, Mama,” said Jay, smiling.  “You awake now? You were really knocked out.”

“Hrrmm.  I think I can safely blame all of you for that.”  Holly stretched contentedly. “I feel refreshed, though.”

“Not needing to sleep for a couple of days again?” Jay asked, still smiling, but she looked a little worried.

“Oh, come on.  That was clearly exceptional circumstances.”

“Let’s go for a dip, hmm?  I wanna freshen up.”

They spent a long time in the water, gliding back and forth, dipping their heads under and surfacing again, embracing and kissing as they turned gently in place near the waterfall.

“Would it be like this on Earth?” Holly asked wistfully, wanting to hear it again.

“I feel like it would be if we were all together,” Jay said.

Holly was just laying her head on Jay’s shoulder when she felt a flurry in the water behind her and then a sharp nip on her bottom that made her stiffen and yelp.  Sharky surfaced with a mighty splash and flung her arms around her, almost pushing her under. 

“Raaar!  The shark strikes,” she growled.

“You  _ animal!” _ Holly snapped.  

“You know it.  Hey, thanks for hooking me up with Chip.  I can tell I’m gonna have a  _ lot _ of fun with her.  But fear not, you’re still my number one bitch.”  She licked Holly’s cheek, then leaned over her shoulder to kiss Jay.  

“What number bitch am I?” Jay asked, laughing.

“If I told you  _ that _ you’d get a big head.  Mmm, Holly, you look yummy.  Wanna  _ chew _ on you.”  She nibbled Holly’s shoulder.

“You’ve had a  _ lot  _ of juice,” Holly said.  She’d noticed them getting sillier as they drank more of it; she wasn’t quite sure what the explanation for that was, but it seemed harmless and they were enjoying it.  

“Wanna munch your tiddies,” Sharky mumbled with her mouth full.  

“You can’t munch the titty,” Jay said.

“Suck the titty?” Sharky said hopefully.  “You let Chippy suck the titty.”

“Because she sucks  _ gently. _  My breasts are too sensitive for you to chew on.”  

“I can bite your ass and your thighs, though.”  Sharky slid her hands down to grasp and knead Holly’s buttocks.

“Well, that’s different!”

“Wanna eat your ass,” Sharky growled.  

“Again?”  Holly turned from Jay and into Sharky’s arms, placing her palms on her cheeks and kissing her softly.  “Mama’s tired now. Can you just be good?”

Sharky chuckled.  “I’m not Chippy. The soft sweet Mama stuff doesn’t work on me.”

“Okay then, you depraved brute, keep your grabby hands to yourself, how’s that?”

“Well  _ that _ just turns me on.”  Sharky gave her a broad, sly grin.  “But I can wait till you’re whining and begging again.  Shouldn’t take long.”

“You two are so romantic,” said Jay.  “ _ Wanna eat your ass _ ,” she added, imitating Sharky’s growl as she snuggled up to Holly, sandwiching her between the two of them.

“Holly’s ass is the most luscious fruit of them all,” said Sharky.  

“But her pussy makes the best juice.”

“You  _ two, _ this is not  _ fair,”  _ Holly sighed.  “My poor little pussy is exhausted and aching from loving everyone and you’re making it tingle and throb  _ again.” _

“Bullshit, your cunt muscles are some of the strongest on this station.”

“Aw, the strong can still get  _ tired,” _ said Jay.  “Holly, seriously, next time there are party tricks we gotta show them your pussy training.  But do it while you’re still fresh and energetic.”

“Is this your weird secret project with the heavy squishy balls?” Sharky asked.  “Haha. Heavy balls.”

“Yep.  It’s really hot.  I massage her pussy to get it good and wet, then I push one in.  Like at first I need to  _ push _ a little, but then there’s this really cool moment when it’s nearly all in and her cunt just takes control and swallows it, pulls it inside her.  Her lips close just like there’s nothing in there, till she starts to push it back out.”

Realising that they were going to talk about her, not to her, but at the same time feeling very placid and comfortable softly pressed between them, Holly settled down with her head on Sharky’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

“So she just shoots it right out like a cannon?” Sharky snickered, scooping her hands under Holly’s bottom to support her weight.

“Not quite, she needs to warm up.  Rock her hips a little, get a feel for it, then she bears down and her pussy lips part and it starts to peep through, she’s spreading and stretching, and then it passes that little cool moment going the other way and it pops out with a gush.  I pop it back in and she does it again, and the ball massages all her sweet spots inside. We practise and load ‘er up with bigger ones, or two or three at a time, and she’s popping ‘em out and squirting and she’s so  _ proud _ of herself it’s adorable.”

“And I bet you’re coaching her and cheering her on, so who’s adorable now, ya dork?”

“Me.  I’m adorable.  It’s me.” Holly could hear from Jay’s voice that she was beaming, and she smiled too, wiggling her bottom back into Jay’s lap.

“Yes, you are.  So I’ll try to do a party trick next time, as long as you’re my assistant.”

“Yay!” said Jay, squeezing both of them in her arms.  “Hey, let’s get out and I’ll turn up the sun and we can all sunbathe.”

Everyone gathered in the area that Jay had made into a pool of artificial sunlight, sprawled over the soft ground basking in the warmth.  Holly lay nestled between Sharky and Jay, feeling blanketed by heat. For her comfort it could have been a little cooler, but the others were obviously enjoying baking.  They talked in quiet rumbles and gently stroked one another. There was Kay, painting with feather-light strokes a curling design that emphasised the musculature of Gee’s back; over there was Chip, lying nose-to-nose with Rosie and whispering husky, giggly secrets.  Holly could see Ellie with her head pillowed on Exes’ lap, Kitty twining little flowers into the thick hair that clustered between Bee’s thighs and formed a trail up the middle of her belly, Skinny vigorously scratching Carnelian’s head in the way that made her go all goofy with relaxed pleasure.  It was idyllic.

“Wonder if it’s still like this on Earth,” someone murmured drowsily.  “Wish we could ask XM.”

“It must be okay.  I mean, she  _ lives _ there.  And she didn’t seem miserable or anything.”

“Wonder if any of the stuff we helped build is still standing...”

“Wonder if any of the stuff we helped wreck got rebuilt!”

“It really weirded me out to think she  _ lived _ with Rose Quartz.”

“Yeah… like what could she be  _ like? _  In real life?”

“I dunno.  We did see her that one time, remember when she made that speech at us?”

“Up there in her poofy white dress like she was some kind of elite.  What kinda Quartz gets gussied up like that?”

“Does it all mean she was right, though?  About some things anyway?”

“There was just something about her that set off my bullshit detector.”

“Like what?”

“Fucked if I know.  She seemed like she meant what she was saying.  There was just  _ something _ off.”

“Let’s not talk about all that,” Holly said, dismayed at the turn things were taking.  “It’s been such a  _ beautiful _ day.  I feel so lucky to be here with all of you.  What if we all said something that makes us feel lucky?  That makes us glad?”

There was a little scoffing, but she was relieved to hear Kay speak up.  “I’m glad I got to decorate all of you today. Painting on skin is really fun and I wanna do more of it.”

“I’m glad I get to get all tipsy on juice with my best friends.”

“I feel lucky y’all are so horny.”

“I’m glad we can just take a day to feel good like this.”

“I’m glad Holly’s fun now.”

“I — I’m glad you were all so cool and nice about me wanting to do something different.”

“Heck, I feel lucky every time I get fucked like I did today.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’m glad Holly decided she should look pregnant all the time!” Rosie piped up.  

“What?” Holly asked, startled into sitting halfway up.

“Should I… not have said that?” Rosie asked, her raised hand wilting down.  “I just think it’s really hot on you, lots of us do, so I figured you wanted to do something nice for us… and we appreciate it...”

“What makes you think I look pregnant  _ all the time?” _

“Not super duper pregnant!  Like just starting to show pregnant.  Weren’t you roleplaying it when you kept saying your boobs are sore?”

“That’s not — I mean —” Holly looked at her breasts in confusion.  

Jay propped herself up on one elbow, looking at them with a furrowed brow.  “Holls, are you saying you’re not doing all that on purpose?”

“All  _ what?” _ Holly demanded.  “People can have tender breasts without being pregnant!  The way all of you paw them it’d be stranger if they  _ weren’t _ sore sometimes.”  She crossed her arms over them defensively.

“But I mean your tummy…”

“Yes, I have a little pooch there, thank you, I’m aware.  I’ve always had that.”

“It feels different,” Jay said.  “Like firmer, the way it does when the uterus expands enough to — well, I just thought you were doing the details really well.”  Her eyes were wide and the lack of a smile on her lips was making Holly increasingly nervous.

“You shouldn’t look so serious if you’re just teasing,” she said a little desperately.  

“That’s what I thought too,” said Exes, clambering over recumbent bodies to reach them.  “You even used the little things we talked about, like the colour change.” Others were beginning to sit up and stare.

“Rubbish,” said Holly firmly, “I do  _ not _ have a stripe on my belly.  You can see that easily.”

“Not the linea nigra.”  Exes shook her head. “The other one.”

“I’m not a pervy pregnancy nerd like some people here,” Sharky said, “but is this about the colour her vag is these days?  I thought that was just, like, a  _ compliment. _  Like ‘I’ve been pounded by so many Amethysts my pussy’s turned purple.  Pussy property of Prime.’”

“It is  _ not,” _ said Holly.  

“You couldn’t really see it without a mirror, could you?” said Exes.  “Looked at it in a mirror lately?”

“N-no.”  

“Okay, you’ve definitely got that sign, round the mouth of your vagina and just inside anyway.  I can’t exactly peep your cervix but I’d be surprised if the whole thing didn’t match.” Exes knelt in front of her, and she looked far too earnest too.

“Why are we all sitting here talking as if this nonsense could be real?” Holly blurted out.

“Because you’re telling us you’re not putting it on,” Jay said.  “If it’s not pretend, but it’s  _ here, _ doesn’t that have to mean it’s real?”

“But it can’t be,” Holly said plaintively.  “We all  _ know _ that.”

“Do we?  I mean, you’re different from us.”

“I’m still a Quartz!  And still a  _ Gem.” _

Exes placed a hand lightly on her shoulder, petting it a little.  “Holly, it’s okay. We can settle this really easily. I can examine you and then we’ll know what’s what.  Okay? I can do a preliminary check by hand right now, and if it’s still not clear, well, I bet we can retune the scanning equipment we use on the humans to get a better look inside.”

“Okay…”  Holly tried to pull herself together.  “Just to make it absolutely clear to all of  _ you _ so you don’t hold onto any silly ideas.”

“Totally,” Exes said with an encouraging nod.  Holly felt a touch on her hand and looked to find Jay taking hold of it, giving it a gentle squeeze together with a warm little smile.   _ I don’t need that!  But thank you for giving it, I suppose… _

“Everyone else move back a little, don’t crowd,” Exes directed.  

“Me too?” Sharky asked, sounding worried, for her.

“No,” Holly said quickly.  “Here. Hold my other hand.  There you are. Feel better?”  Sharky gave her a crooked smile and interlaced their fingers.  

“Take it easy, breathe nice and slow, and if anything hurts or feels weird, you tell me straight away, okay?” Exes said, placing her hands on Holly’s knees and guiding her thighs apart.  

“Right.  Of course.  This — this isn’t the  _ first _ time I’ve had you touching me in private places while everyone watches, you know,” Holly said, with an attempt at a light laugh.  The mood was so different, though; the onlookers felt excited but anxious, in suspense, all staring at her straight-faced. No one was grinning or cheering or whistling, no one was touching herself, although a lot of them had joined hands or put an arm around a friend’s shoulders or waist.  

Exes began by carefully feeling her belly, pressing lightly then more firmly in various spots.  “Feels harder to me,” she said, “but I’m not gonna go just by that. Let’s look at the business end.”  She parted Holly’s pubic hair and examined her vulva closely, frowning in concentration. “Anyone remember  _ when _ this colour change started?”  There was a general shrugging and mumbling of uncertainty.  

“I think I noticed a couple months ago?” Sharky said hesitantly.  “Maybe more? I’m not too sure. I’m bad with dates.”

“Well, can you remember something else that happened around the same time?  Something a lot of us can remember? It could be before or after, just to help us narrow it down.”

There was a thoughtful pause.  Holly hated being unable to contribute; she felt like a fool for not having noticed what was apparently an obvious change to everyone else.  Why couldn’t anyone have complimented her on it  _ before? _

“I think,” said Chip, “the closest big thing I remember to when I first started noticing it was that awesome gangbang in the hallway.  I think I noticed not long after that.”

“Oh!  That big spontaneous one?”

“Jeez, that’s what, two, three months back?”

“I think it’s more like four.” 

“I know we’ll have a log of it ‘cuz it messed up the shift changeover that day and it was a big clean-up job.”

“Yeah, I wrote it up ‘cuz I thought it was funny to have this official formal log saying ‘Clean-up in corridor B-20, big puddles of cum, more spunk than you can shake a stick at, jizz all up the walls.  This place looks like the inside of Holly’s naughty Agate cunt.’” Gee faltered a little. “Well, it was real funny at the time.” 

“A  _ lot _ of us were joking about getting her pregnant that time, remember?”

“Well, she was really into it.  Remember her begging us to breed her?”

“Stuff like that’s  _ why _ I thought she must just be really into the roleplay side now.”

“Shit, I’ve been patting her belly and saying ‘Take care of that baby’ most times I’ve fucked her since then.”

“Okay, everybody shush, we can look up the date later,” said Jay.  

“I’m gonna check inside you now, Holly, so try to relax.”  Exes slipped a finger into her.

“You can’t, like, stick your arm up and feel the baby though, can you?” asked Sharky.  “I mean, I don’t even bother  _ having _ a cervix but I know they don’t just pop open like that.”  Holly shot her a glare; it seemed entirely too soon to refer to “the baby” like that.

“Oh no.  No, this is — well, I’ve done it a few times for humans because you know, we’re letting ‘em see everything we do now, and they’re curious, and some of ‘em want me to teach them more about bodies… and if you don’t have a bunch of scanners and things, you can check like this.  It’s not as accurate but it’s pretty good. Dang, Holly, you’re  _ deep. _  I need to stretch my finger longer to  _ find _ your cervix.  Okay, there it is.”  Holly caught her breath as she felt a fingertip probing a strange deep place.  “Is that hurting you?” Exes asked. “The cervix softens up and can get a lot more sensitive during pregnancy.  It’s one of those weird parts anyway, some people love pressure on it, others are just like ‘ow ew no.’”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Holly said.  It was embarrassing to be responding like this under the circumstances, but she admitted, “I think I might be in the group that likes some pressure there.”

“Oh, okay.  So that feels nice where I’m touching?”  The fingertip twirled a gentle circle.

“It — it feels pretty nice but that’s not the point right now, is it?”

“It’s not the  _ point, _ but it’s something to remember for later,” Exes said, with a flicker of a wink.  “This part probably will feel weird, and it may hurt for a moment. If I give a sharp tap on your cervix, through the uterine wall, and there’s anything  _ in _ there I should be able to feel a little rebound.  I just need you to hold still so I can be sure what I’m feeling, okay?”

“Okay…”  Holly felt both Jay and Sharky tighten their grip on her hands, and held her breath.   _ I can’t remember consciously  _ forming  _ these parts.  Did I somehow do it in my sleep? _  The sudden knock against her cervix  _ did  _ hurt and she yelped a little.  Exes’ eyes popped. 

“Holy shit!  You’ve got something in there!  Holly, that’s incredible!”

“Oh, my stars!” Jay clutched Holly’s hand to her chest.  All around them Gems began to babble in excitement, she felt Sharky’s arm around her waist squeezing tight, Exes’ finger was still deep inside her and pressing on her tender cervix, she was acutely aware of all these physical feelings and yet her emotions seemed to have gone completely numb.  She wasn’t even sure if she felt surprised. Her ears were ringing and she was light-headed. She let go of Sharky’s hand, reached down and grasped Exes’ wrist, pulling her finger out. Dozens of other hands seemed to be trying to pat and stroke her.

“Holly, are you okay?”

“A BABY”

“Holly’s a mommy!”

“We got her pregnant!  We seriously got her pregnant!”

“Holly, can you hear me?”

“We’re ALL a mommy!”

“Oh my stars, I wonder how much longer till she’s born?”

“She’s gonna be so  _ cute!” _

“Babe — hey, Holly — hey!”

Holly lurched to her feet, shaking off their hands, pulling her clothes together around herself.  “I can’t — I can’t! Leave me  _ alone!”   _ She lowered her head and barged her way through the press of excited Quartzes, racing for the door.  

 

Jay paced in the hallway outside Holly’s room, wondering if she had given her enough time, if there  _ could _ be enough time.  On the other hand, what if Holly was in there suffering and wondering why no one had come to check on her yet?  They had checked on the feeds to make sure she hadn’t rushed off and fallen downstairs or something, she had gone straight to her room sure enough, but the only way to find out more was to go in there too.  If it was too soon, well, she’d just apologise for that. It wasn’t that often Jay had to face completely new challenges, but she had to remember that the basic principles that had always served her well should still at least help.  Better to do something than nothing, that was one.

She opened the door and blinked in surprise.  She’d expected darkness and a huddled, sniffling figure on the bed, but the lights were on, although they were dimmed and softened a little.  Holly was on her bed, but she was sitting up straight, looking towards the window and the stars. She had put her hair back up and her comfort shawl was wrapped around her shoulders.  As Jay stepped in she turned to look at her, and although her eyes looked a little weepy her expression was calm. 

“I’ve been dramatic again, haven’t I?” she said ruefully.  

“Uh, I think you have a full excuse for that.  There’s not a whole lot more dramatic than finding out you’re pregnant when you didn’t know you  _ could _ be.”  Jay approached carefully and sat down on the bed beside her.  Apart from the shawl Holly had undressed again; she wasn’t sure what to make of that.  “Listen, Holly, I’m sorry we all just got hype and didn’t think you could be feeling any different.  No wonder you were freaking out. This is  _ in _ your body.  We don’t want you to go through anything you don’t want to.  We’ve all been talking and we think maybe there could be a way to, like, bubble your pregnancy so it doesn’t go any farther.  Just put it on hold, no harm —” Holly leaned over and hugged her tightly, cutting her off.

“It’s all right,” she said.   _ “I’m _ all right.  Thank you so much, but we don’t need to do that.”  She sat back a little and stroked Jay’s cheek, smiling through tears.

“Are you sure?” Jay asked.  “Because you looked so scared.”

“Did I?  I didn’t know  _ how _ I felt.  I was just completely overwhelmed.  My mind was a blank, except for feeling that everything around me was  _ too much _ and I needed to escape.  As soon as I was away from you all I felt a little relief — I’m sorry!  I know that sounds awful.”

“No it doesn’t.  We  _ were _ being too much.  We were just so excited, we got carried away.”

“I came in here and shut the door and lay down and tried to catch my breath.  It didn’t seem real, but I was getting a little calmer. I got up and took off my clothes and had a really careful look at myself in the mirror, thinking it  _ could _ be true.  I could see what you told me you’d been seeing.  I felt like a fool for not picking it up myself. Then it did start to seem real and I cried a little.  I wasn’t  _ upset _ so much as… as if I’d frozen and now I was melting.  It didn’t get any worse than that.” Holly looked down at herself and laid one hand on her belly, hesitantly, before settling to cup it protectively.  “And then I felt that it’s actually true. I said it aloud to hear it for myself. I’m pregnant.” Her eyes spilled over again, but her face was shining.  “Then I started to know… I’m actually happy.”

Jay felt a huge rising warmth rushing from her chest into her face, a burst of joy and wonder.  She’d come in with such carefully controlled expectations, all prepared to put Holly’s wishes ahead of her own, not to hear that she was  _ happy. _

“I mean, don’t misunderstand, I’m still  _ totally _ baffled and really confused and I’ll probably have at least ten more meltdowns if anything else unexpected happens,” Holly said hastily, wiping her cheeks with the shawl, “but if I say to myself that I’m going to have a baby, that one of my wonderful, loving, strong Quartzes, or somehow the whole lot of you, has — has  _ impregnated  _ me, my stars, that sounds  _ so _ strange, but if I say that I’m  _ somehow  _ going to give birth to a baby that’s going to be  _ ours, _ I just — I overflow because I’m so happy.  Do you know what I mean? Oh, darling, you do, you are too.”

Jay blinked, scattering tears, and laughed, and threw her arms around Holly and hugged her tight.  “Oh, Holly.” For a little while she couldn’t do anything more intelligent than say her name and laugh and cry and kiss her.  Finally she managed to say, “This is… this is incredible, it’s awesome, it’s  _ beautiful. _  Oh, I’m so relieved you’re happy!”

“I’m  _ pregnant,” _ Holly said, and giggled.  “Or I mean, so I  _ think. _  Exes did say that manual method isn’t as accurate as it could be.  I’d like to have her check by less primitive means if she can.”

“She’s already working on the scanner,” Jay said.  “She figured you’d need all the information you could get, and she said it’d stop her going buggy with impatience and worry.”

“Worry about what?” Holly asked, looking a bit alarmed.

“About how you’re feeling, duh.”

“Oh!  Oh, good.  I thought for a moment you meant she’d noticed something worrying  _ physically. _  Oh dear.  I hope I’m not going to be this nervous the entire time.”

Jay took both Holly’s hands in hers, pressed them together and kissed them.  “Hey. I’m going to tell you exactly what Little Voice tells all our little pregnancy newbs, because it’s true.  It’s perfectly normal to be nervous. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong, it just means you’re going through something really different from anything else you’ve done.  You’re in good hands and you’ll have any help you could possibly need.”

“I like it better in your voice,” Holly said, smiling slightly.  

“You wanna get dressed and go see if Exes can do a scan now?” Jay offered.

“Just hold me again for a moment.”  Holly wrapped her arms around Jay’s shoulders and rested her head there, her breath tickling softly against Jay’s neck.  Jay held her close, breathing in the soft smell of her hair and skin, still carrying traces of crushed grass and flower petals.  

“I love you so much,” Jay murmured.  “I can’t really believe this is happening to us, but I love it too.”

“I love you, my sweet, strong Jay.”

 

Holly had been a little worried that the whole garrison in their enthusiasm and solicitude would try to fit into the human medical examination room with her and Exes.  It was relatively spacious but still hadn’t been designed for groups of forty or more. However, in the event it was just Jay and Chip who accompanied her; she was a little puzzled by the way Sharky hung back but at this point she had no attention to spare for it.  Sharky lurked out in the corridor among the others, whispering amongst themselves as they waited for news. 

Exes and Skinny were both frowning over the computer that controlled the scanner, poking at it intermittently and arguing about which settings would make a difference.

“It’s the difference between scanning matter and scanning energy,” Exes said, rumpling up her hair discontentedly.  “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Matter  _ is _ energy if you look at it the right way,” said Skinny.  “And if it doesn’t work, we’ll mess around with it till it does.  Everything I know about machines and computers I learned futzing around and fixing my mistakes.”  

“I mean, we just need it to be able to show us if there’s… I dunno, a foetus or a seed gem or what,” Exes said.  “Right? Just if it’s there for now, we can fine-tune the rest later.”

“Right, so don’t get all thingy about it.  We’re nearly ready for ya, Holls, just sit tight,” Skinny called over to her.  “Or, you know, sit loose, whatever’s comfortable.”

“How does it  _ feel?” _ Chip asked, looking at Holly’s tummy as if it contained the secrets of the universe.  Holly was seated on the examination table where normally a human would lie, sedated in the old days or awake and being constantly reassured and encouraged under the new regime.  Chip was kneeling on one side of her, with her elbows propped on the tabletop and her chin in her hands, and Jay sat on a stool on the other side, scrolling through log entries on a hand screen.

“It just feels normal at the moment,” Holly admitted.  “It seems as if I should feel something different, some extra warmth or a pulse or something, but apart from when Exes examined me it’s just… normal.”

“I don’t think that’s gonna last much longer,” Jay said.  “I found the date of the hallway gangbang. If it happened around about that time, say a couple of weeks either side, you’d be three to four months along now.  Getting close to the halfway mark — if it’s gonna be the same length as a human pregnancy. It’s a pain not knowing more or less  _ when  _ conception  _ was _ like we do with Choosening.  Plus with Choosening you know who the other parent is!  Even if we knew that was the day, we could only say it could’ve been the whole of B Shift.”

“Plus Sharky,” added Chip, “‘cuz she picked up Holly and put her to bed after.”

“I just bet she did,” said Jay wryly.  

“It could be me,” Chip said, her eyes widening as if it had just occurred to her.  “Wow.”

Jay chuckled.  “Of course it could be you.  Gosh, if it made a difference how often you were with her, not just if you were with her at the right time, you’d be at the top of the list.”  That made Chip’s cheeks glow, and she wagged her bottom contentedly.

“Okay,” said Exes, marching over and clapping her hands briskly, “we think we got it.  Skinny’s gonna drive the computer and I’m gonna do the scanning on you. We really don’t know how it’s gonna look, so it could take a while to get an image we can make sense of.  You feeling okay?”

“Perfectly all right.  I just want to be completely sure that there’s no mistake and you didn’t just feel some sort of… I don’t know what.  Illusion. Once I  _ know  _ I can… well, get on with things.  Properly.” Holly had found a strange sort of backsliding in her mood; she had shot from “I can’t possibly be pregnant” to “I  _ am _ pregnant, how wonderful” and then back to “What if I’m not pregnant and have got myself and everyone else all excited for nothing?”

“Okay.  Lie back.  You’ll need to scoot down, sorry, the table’s too short for your legs.”

“It’s hardly wide enough for my hips and shoulders,” Holly huffed, trying to get comfortable with her feet dangling.

“We’ll build a bigger one that’s long enough and wide enough for even  _ your _ hips,” Jay said, bending over and kissing her forehead.  “Gotta make you comfy.”

“Okay,” said Exes, “pull your top up and your pants down to under your tummy.  You’ve never seen how we do this, have you?”

“I can’t keep an eye on  _ everything,”  _ Holly said fretfully.  

“It’s cool, I’m just gonna talk you through it.  I pull this bar down from the ceiling and it drops a sheet of light through you.  See? I promise it’s not chopping you in half, it just looks like it.”

“Did you  _ know  _ it wouldn’t chop her in half?” Chip asked, sounding alarmed.  She squeezed Holly’s arm.

“Of course.  We tested it on my hair.  C’mon, I’m not just gonna guillotine Holly.”

“There’s some hair on the floor,” said Jay, narrowing her eyes.  

“From an early test before we figured out how to make it safe for light bodies,” said Skinny, “and is Holly in two parts?  No? Then quit bitching.”

“Okay, now we glide the bar up and down and it’s gonna capture the image of your inside in slices.”

“I wish you’d stop talking about chopping and slicing me!” Holly snapped.  

“Yeah, bad taste, sorry,” said Exes, giving her knee a little pat.  “You okay?”

“I’m okay.  Is it working?”

“Well, if you look here,” Skinny said, turning a screen towards the table, “you’ll see… not a whole heck of a lot, actually.”  It was full of colourful static. “Keep scanning, Exy. I’m gonna try to get things into focus.”

“That’s really not how I’d picture your insides,” Chip said.

“Yeah?” said Exes, still steadily moving the scanner bar and watching the screen.  “How’d you picture ‘em?”

“I dunno, just… Oh!  What’s that?” The static had changed to wiggly lines.

“I’ll get it sooner or later,” Skinny said, frowning.

“There’s more blue,” Jay pointed out.  “So, well, it looks more like Holly. Dunno how much that helps.”  She held Holly’s hand between both hers, gently petting the palm. 

“Whoa!” cried Exes.  “That looked like something for a sec!  Go back.”

“Trying, trying… oh wow.”  The screen still flickered but an image had resolved, a lavender space within walls of blue with a kind of cluster of light slowly pulsing in the middle of it.  

“It looks like you have a little star inside of you,” Chip said, awed.  

“It looks like it  _ is _ a seed gem,” said Skinny, “but it’s kind of… the body is forming and unforming all the time?  The energy in there is crazy.”

“It’s really real,” Holly whispered, feeling her eyes begin to overflow again.  

“There’s really a little growing Gem — a  _ baby _ Gem,” Jay breathed.  “Our baby!” She turned her face to Holly’s, eyes wet but beaming with joy and pride.  

“Cool if I go tell the others we know for sure now?” Skinny asked, already halfway to the door.

“Yes.  Please do.  I don’t know what to say,” Holly admitted.  

“Oh, I do.”  Skinny cracked the door open, stuck her head through the gap and yelled, “Holly Blue Agate is pregnant, pass it on!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, question: continue here, or let this be The End of "Holly Blue Agate is Desperate" and start a new story for "Holly Blue Agate is Pregnant?"  
> ETA: The people have spoken. [Holly Blue Agate is Pregnant, Pass It On.](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F15350079&t=NTY5ODlhNWZjMTVjOWRmNzRlOGIyOGFjYzBlNDAwNjU5ODQyNWYwMixKcjdENG9PWQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AH53ZZU_EqbKrVA2d_Q_S-g&p=http%3A%2F%2Fairyairyquiteinappropriate.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F176051968515%2Fholly-blue-agate-is-pregnant-pass-it-on&m=0)

**Author's Note:**

> Art that has provided inspiration for this story/general good feelings in the nether regions:  
> [From nimae04](https://nimae04.tumblr.com/post/155532105461/nsfw-more)  
> From molded-from-clay [(1)](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/post/155701484342/full-image-under-the-cutmore-i-warned) [(2)](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/post/156649571142/oh-holly-youre-so-fine-youre-so-fine-you-blow) [(3)](http://molded-from-clay.tumblr.com/post/156158512077/a-holly-doodle-that-turned-out-nice)  
> [From southblot](http://southblot.tumblr.com/post/155364163902/i-loved-holly-blue-agateshe-had-to-be)  
> [From riotafterdark](http://riotafterdark.tumblr.com/post/156564482333/blerp-leblerpleprlr-rrr-r-r-r-its-a-terrible)  
> From anal-poprocks [(1)](http://anal-poprocks.tumblr.com/post/155618347851/feel-free-to-leave-su-requests-p) [(2)](http://anal-poprocks.tumblr.com/post/156351692736/hmm-would-you-ever-consider-drawing-holly-blue) [(3)](http://anal-poprocks.tumblr.com/post/156698290216/how-about-about-holly-blue-being-taken-against-a) [(4)](http://anal-poprocks.tumblr.com/post/156698338056/when-you-feel-better-hope-thats-soon-art-aside)  
> [From grungina](http://grungina.tumblr.com/post/155747218593/request-holly-blue)  
> [From barelynsfw](http://barelynsfw.tumblr.com/post/156026325968/alright-here-it-is-for-you-two-making-the)  
> [From saaiiee](http://saaiie.tumblr.com/post/155619083529/the-only-thing-i-could-think-of-during-this-scene)


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